The Moscow Exchange (MOEX), the largest exchange operator in Russia, announced on Monday that it has started to quote the Japanese yen against the Russian ruble, as part of its attempts to mirror the global foreign exchange (forex) markets.

Earlier this year, the exchange said that it would be increasing its forex product offering to bring it up to international standards. To meet this promise, as of yesterday users of MOEX can now trade between the US dollar and the Swiss franc, the Chinese yuan, Kazakhstani tenge, and the Turkish lira.

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“The expansion of the product line gives market participants extra capabilities to diversify currency transactions and would contribute to higher liquidity of the currency exchange market,” MOEX said in a press release.

According to the statement, for the 11 months of 2018, the trading volume of its forex market so far is 322 trillion rubles ($4.8 trillion). From this value, spot instruments contribute to 80 trillion rubles ($1.2 trillion), an increase of ten percent from the same time period last year.

MOEX Focuses on FX markets

In recent months, MOEX has undergone a number of partnerships to help broaden its forex markets. In November, the exchange operator made two notable agreements, the first being signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with one of China’s largest investment banks, China International Capital Corporation (CICC), as Finance Magnates reported.

The purpose of the MoU is to strengthen the cooperation between Russia and China, specifically when promoting investment and the development of the offshore Chinese yuan market in Russia. The addition of the Chinese yuan on Monday seems like a step towards fulfilling this agreement.

Only three days before the MoU was signed, MOEX also announced that it had begun collaborating with Integral Development Corp., a technology and liquidity provider for the forex market.

By joining forces with Integral, MOEX will be able to deliver access to global forex liquidity to its customers. On the other hand, Integral will also be able to offer its own customers liquidity from MOEX.