The foreign national financial assets registered with VEB.RF comprise liabilities of foreign borrowers under credits granted by the former USSR and the Russian Federation. Substantially all of these claims by their nature qualify as export credits and are connected with the supplies of Russian (and Soviet) industrial goods and services abroad.

In the capacity of an agent of the Government of the Russian Federation for the management of foreign national financial assets, VEB.RF ensures:

• record keeping of government credits granted by the former USSR and the Russian Federation to foreign borrowers;
• conduct of banking operations for the use, servicing, repayment, reconciliation and transfer of liabilities under the government credits granted by the former USSR and the Russian Federation to foreign borrowers;
• preparation of opinions on draft intergovernmental documents regarding the allowance of government credits by the Russian Federation to foreign borrowers or settlement of debt under the government credits granted by the former USSR and the Russian Federation to foreign borrowers;
• preparation of interbank documents setting out the technical procedure for record keeping and settlements under intergovernmental documents regarding the allowance of government credits by the Russian Federation to foreign borrowers or settlement of debt under the government credits granted by the former USSR and the Russian Federation to foreign borrowers;
• development of agreements on financing of export supplies of Russian products in discharge of the government credits granted by the Russian Federation to foreign borrowers;
• preparation of proposals and participation in discussions regarding possible conditions and mechanisms for the allowance of government credits to foreign borrowers by the Russian Federation, and acceptable restructuring conditions for the credits granted by the former USSR and the Russian Federation;
• accounting/settlement and research/information support of the Ministry of Finance of Russia in its contacts with the Paris Club of creditor states, and participation of its experts, as part of the Russian delegation, in the meetings of the Paris Club and the multilateral negotiations over the settlement of the debt of the debtor states, held by the Club;
• organization and holding of competitive bidding (tenders) for the disposal of funds in clearing and accounting currencies received in discharge of India and Vietnam’s debt obligations to the Russian Federation.

Paris Club

The Paris Club is an informal intergovernmental group of industrialized creditor countries. It is designed to reschedule government or government-guaranteed debt, to provide solutions to debtor countries’ payment problems. The Club started to operate in 1956 when a group of creditors was invited to Paris to conduct negotiations with Argentina, thus a precedent of a Club solution to debt repayment problems was established.

In September 1997, the Russian Government signed in Paris a Memorandum of Understanding, which formalized Russia as a full-member of the Paris Club. Since the Memorandum date Russian debt claims are to acquire the status of debt claims of Paris Club members.