The Bank of Russia announced a pilot program for the digital ruble (CBDC), in which a dozen banks are involved.
On Monday, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia) officially announced on the launch of a pilot program for its central bank's digital currency (CBDC) - the digital ruble. Participate in trials a dozen different bankswho volunteered to participate and submitted the proper documents to the national bank. To be eligible for participation, banks had to prove that they are technically and technologically ready to prepare systems for testing.
Some of the banks included in the pilot program are VTB, Gazprombank, Alfa-bank and the country's largest Sberbank.
The announcement also said that the development of a prototype for the digital ruble platform would be completed by the end of the year, and testing would begin in early 2022. First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia Olga Skorobogatova said that the “digital ruble” project is aimed at creating a new payment infrastructure to increase the availability of payments and transfers and reduce their cost for the population and business. "
Skorobogatova stressed the importance of a smooth migration between traditional and digital currencies. Part of the first phase of testing will be to monitor the digital ruble emission among various other operations. If all goes well, additional banks will be added to the pilot in the future.
Russia joins other national banks in CBDC testing
Russia is now joining a small but growing number of countries that are testing digital currencies or planning to test them in the near future. Both the Banque de France and the Swiss National Bank recently announced that they will be testing CBDCs in the wholesale lending market. The study confirmed three banks: the Swiss bank USB, Credit Suisse and the French bank Natixis. In terms of cryptography, testing will be assisted by the SIX Digital Exchange, R3 and Innovation Hub.
In May, the Bank of Korea announced its plans to test the functionality of its own central bank digital currency. The purpose of the testing phase for South Korea is to “ensure that the CBDC can handle settlements and transfers for the purchase of goods and services.” Testing is scheduled to begin in August 2021 and run until June next year.
Other countries like China and Sweden are testing CBDCs, and the Bahamas and Cambodia have already started using digital currencies nationally.