MNA – Top officials from the Central Bank of Iran and Turkey along with senior bankers met in Tehran on Sunday to discuss new ways of developing banking relations between the two neighboring states.

CBI Deputy for Foreign Exchange Affairs Seyed Ahmad Araghchi and Vice Governor of the Central Bank of Turkey Murat Uysal called for expanding economic and trade ties for facilitating banking relations.

"The currency swap agreement [recently signed between Iran and Turkey] is one of the measures of the central banks of both countries to continue and increase cooperation and is expected to be implemented soon as the infrastructures are set in place," Araghchi maintained.

Following several rounds of negotiations between Iranian and Turkish officials, the governors of the two countries’ central banks announced on Oct. 20 that the final agreement for conducting bilateral trade in local currencies has been signed.

Based on the agreement, the two banks allocated a credit of 5 billion lira ($1.32 billion) and its equivalent in rial to their respective agent banks, namely Bank Melli Iran and Ziraat Bank, to be used as letters of credit with a repayment period of one year for both countries' traders.

In this meeting, chief executives and deputies of Ziraat Bank and Halkbank of Turkey exchanged information with the representatives of Iranian banks in line with expanding brokerage relationship.