OREANDA-NEWS Russia and Iran have connected their financial message transmission systems, so now their banks can carry out transactions directly, Mohsen Karimi, Deputy head of the Central Bank of Iran for International Affairs, told the media.

"We have connected the transmission systems of (financial - ed.) messages of the two countries to each other. This means that the banks of the two countries no longer need Switzerland to communicate with each other and commercial banks of both countries can establish intermediary relations with each other. The exporter can issue an invoice in rials to the Russian side and receive money from Russian banks in Iran," Fars news agency quoted Karimi as saying.

The deputy head of the Central Bank of Iran also stressed that exporters of both countries can carry out transactions in their national currencies.

A day earlier, Hossein Ayvazlu, a member of the executive board of the National Development Fund of Iran, said that the national welfare funds of Russia and Iran plan to create joint investment committees to implement various projects in the oil and gas, petrochemical, pharmaceutical and a number of other fields.