The Central Bank of Russia may become the sole paying agent for external obligations, including for corporate issuers, Report informs via Vedomosti.
If this scheme is approved, the Central Bank will become an obligatory intermediary in front of the actual paying agents of the companies, which in most cases are large American and European banks. The regulator will give them instructions to make payments instead of the issuer itself.
According to the source of Vedomosti, the project has already been prepared and may be announced in the coming days.
At the same time, a final decision on the transition to such a mechanism for servicing Russian foreign debts has not yet been made. Other schemes are also discussed.
Earlier, the Ministry of Finance approved a temporary procedure for making payments on Russia's public debt in foreign currency.