A rollout of an official digital version of the ruble is scheduled to take place over the next few years, and the Bank of Russia is continuing its efforts toward the coming implementation of the central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The most recent update to the Bank of Russia’s monetary policy indicates that the regulatory body will connect all banks and credit institutions to the digital ruble platform in the year 2024. That would be a significant year for Russia because presidential elections are scheduled to take place in the country in March 2024, and the current president, Vladimir Putin, is guaranteed the right to run for re-election by the constitution.
The central bank anticipates that by that time, it will have successfully completed trials of “real money” customer-to-customer transactions, in addition to testing customer-to-business and business-to-customer settlement.
In addition, the Bank of Russia plans to begin beta testing of digital ruble-based smart contracts for trading in 2023. A select group of participants will do this testing.
The Russian Roadmap for CBDC Implementation
The financial institution mentioned that it intends to carry out the implementation of the CBDC in a methodical fashion, releasing a variety of new trials and features each year as it goes along. According to the Bank of Russia, as soon as the Federal Treasury is complete, the digital ruble will also feature payments from consumers to the government, businesses to the government, as well as payments from government to consumers and businesses, respectively.
Along with the integration of non-bank financial intermediaries, financial platforms, and exchange infrastructure, the central bank plans to establish the offline mode for the digital ruble by the year 2025.
According to the statement made by the Bank of Russia, “the stepwise process of implementing the digital ruble will provide market participants with the time to adapt to new conditions.”
According to the additional information provided by the authority, the Bank of Russia will also engage with other central banks to develop their own digital currencies to carry out cross-border and foreign exchange operations using digital currencies.
Russia launched its first digital ruble trials in February 2022. This was in accordance with the country’s official CBDC strategy, which was published the previous year. The Bank of Russia had in the past assembled a panel of twelve financial institutions to conduct pilot tests of the digital version of the ruble. This panel included important financial institutions such as Sber, VTB, Tinkoff Bank, and others.
Russia has been somewhat behind its aims to regulate the cryptocurrency business, despite the fact that it has been keeping up with the deployment plans for CBDC. Prior to the adoption of Russia’s crypto law, “On Digital Financial Assets,” which didn’t alter much because it still lacks many areas of regulation such as crypto mining, taxation, and others, President Putin made several pleas for the country to adopt cryptocurrency regulation.
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