By Stan Higgins,

The central securities depositories (CSDs) in Russia and China have signed a memorandum of understanding that sets the stage for the two institutions to begin partnering on post-trade blockchain applications.

Announced today, the deal will see Russia’s National Settlement Depository (NSD) and China’s Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation Limited (CSDC) “exchange experience and information” on a range of issues, according to an announcement from NSD. The two institutions will also collaborate on experimenting with fintech, which will include trials involving blockchain.

According to NSD executive board chairman Eddie Astanin, the cooperation on fintech and blockchain is one of the primary aspects of the deal.

Astanin said in a statement:

”Cooperation in the FinTech sphere will become an important element in our cooperation with CSDC. In particular, we agreed to coordinate our efforts aimed at researching the opportunities for using the blockchain technology in the post-trade sector.”

The NSD announced earlier this year that it was experimenting with blockchain-based voting, developing a prototype to enable votes directly on the ledger. The firm later told CoinDesk that the technology could enable financial firms to discover new markets and services.

Representatives from the CSDC recently spoke out about the tech, calling for more involvement from regulators.