MOSCOW: The Russian rouble weakened against the Chinese yuan due to concerns about the impact of the expiration of a licence from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for commercial banks on Oct. 12.

The licence was issued to allow banks to wind down their operations with the Moscow Stock Exchange (MOEX) after Western sanctions on the exchange and its clearing agent, the National Clearing Centre, were introduced on June 12.

The sanctions stopped all trade in dollars and euros at MOEX, making China’s yuan the most traded foreign currency in Russia. Trade in dollars and euros has shifted to the over-the-counter (OTC) market, obscuring price data.

There is concern in the market that, after the OFAC licence expires, Chinese banks providing yuan liquidity for exchange trading may pull out for compliance reasons.

At 0800 GMT, the rouble was at 13.51 against the yuan, 2.8% down to closing level on Sept. 30, the last day of trading before the Chinese National Day holiday, according to LSEG data.

The rouble was down 0.3% to Monday’s closing at 13.57 against the yuan in trade on MOEX.

Russian rouble flat against dollar

The rouble was flat at 96.15 against the dollar, LSEG data showed.

The rouble has weakened against the yuan by about 10% in September to the lowest level since October, 2023.

Traders and analysts pointed to uncertainty over the licence expiry as well as low sales of foreign currency by the state as key factors.

One-day rouble-dollar futures, which trade on the Moscow exchange and are a guide for OTC market rates, were flat at 96.17.

The central bank’s official exchange rate, which it calculates using OTC data, was set at 96.06 to the dollar.

The rouble was down 0.12% at 105.70 against the euro , LSEG data showed.

Brent crude oil, a global benchmark for Russia’s main export, was down 2.0% at $79.54 as traders took profits from a rally in the previous session.