On March 22, at a ceremony to mark the launch of RMB clearing services in Moscow, Hu Hao, deputy governor of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), said the bank's launch of such services in Russia will expand the use of the Chinese currency and economic exchanges between the two countries. 

Representatives of both the Chinese Embassy to Russia and the Central Bank of Russia attended the ceremony. The launch has extended ICBC’s overseas operation network to 42 countries and regions, and makes Russia the seventh country where ICBC acts as a RMB clearing bank, following similar service launches in Singapore, Luxembourg, Qatar, Canada, Thailand and Argentina. ICBC is also the world’s first commercial bank to provide 24-hour RMB clearing and exchange services. 

In 2015, the Central Bank of Russia included RMB in its foreign exchange reserve, and in 2016 the People's Bank of China signed an agreement on launching RMB clearing services in Russia, appointing ICBC as the designated bank.