Russian companies are working on shifting their payments for trade to renminbi and other Asian currencies from the dollar, two top bankers told the Financial Times.

They said the Russians fear losing access to dollars as a result of sanctions over the Russia's intervention in Ukraine.

"Over the last few weeks there has been a significant interest in the market from large Russian corporations to start using various products in renminbi and other Asian currencies and to set up accounts in Asian locations," Pavel Teplukhin, head of Deutsche Bank's Russian operations, told the FT.

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And Andrei Kostin, CEO of Russian state bank VTB, said one of the bank's "main tasks" is to increase the use of non-dollar currencies.

"Given the extent of our bilateral trade with China, developing the use of settlements in rubles and yuan is a priority on the agenda, and so we are working on it now," he told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a briefing, according to the FT.

"Since May, we have been carrying out this work."

Experts say global use of the yuan will likely increase as China's economy continues to modernize.

"Clearly the renminbi has traction. If you look at any measure of the renminbi’s internationalization, . . . the trajectory looks very sharp," Cornell University economist Eswar Prasad told AFP (Agence France-Presse).

"If China moves forward with its financial market and economic reforms, the renminbi will become a viable, possibly significant, reserve currency."

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