From April 1, the Bank of Russia will launch real operations with the digital ruble for 13 banks. This was announced on February 17 by Olga Skorobogatova, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.
“We plan to launch the digital ruble project into a pilot stage from April 1 at the beginning with operations – transfers between individuals and payments in trade and service enterprises. I’ll immediately draw your attention to the fact that the pilot will go on real operations and real clients, but in a limited number of operations and on a limited number of clients with 13 banks that have already technically confirmed their readiness, ”she said at the Ural Cybersecurity Forum.
Earlier, on February 6, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov called the creation of a digital ruble a promising project. He noted that a similar innovation operates in other countries, including China.
In September last year, the chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, announced that the regulator plans to start testing the digital ruble in operations with real clients from April 2023.
In addition, Nabiullina said that the Central Bank will actively promote the possibility of cross-border payments using the digital ruble.
In turn, the head of the laboratory for the study of the monetary system and the analysis of financial markets at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Denis Domashchenko, in a conversation with Izvestia, noted that the digital ruble could ensure the secrecy of transactions with Russian counterparties.
The digital ruble should become the third form of currency along with cash and non-cash money that is stored in bank accounts. It is expected that it will be stored as a digital code in the regulator’s e-wallet.
