Rosbank conducts Russia’s first investment transaction with DFAs

What’s new? Rosbank has conducted its first investment transaction in Russia using digital financial assets (DFAs). The bank invested in a digital token for palladium metal issued by the Atomyze platform. GPF Investments, an international fund with a portfolio of precious metals, acted as an issuer. The asset is linked to the market value of palladium and entitles Rosbank to a cash claim equivalent to its market value, TASS reports citing the bank’s press service.

Material by TASS

What is known about the deal? First Deputy Chairman at Rosbank Perizat Shaikhina said that tokenization of rights for precious and rare metals, as well as other commodity assets, may become an alternative to investments in foreign currency as an investment tool. She stressed that Rosbank was the first banking partner of the Atomyze platform.

“The debut investment transaction using DFAs in Russia confirms the possibility of active development of the financial market with distributed ledger technologies,” Shaikhina added.

What is known about Atomyze? In February 2022, the platform became the first registered DFA information system operator in Russia. One of Atomyze’s investors is the Interros company of entrepreneur Vladimir Potanin. The platform provides digitalization services for various assets and financial liabilities. In July, the company announced plans to attract 1 million new customers over five years through cooperation with Tinkoff Bank and the e-sports project Games of the Future.

Earlier, Sber conducted the first deal to issue DFAs of SberFactoring on its own platform. The issuer’s liabilities are secured by receivables transferred for factoring services. The volume of the issue amounts to 1 billion Russian rubles, and the term of the placement is 3 months.

On July 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on the regulation of DFAs. The document imposes a ban on payments for goods, services, and works with digital assets, excluding certain cases stipulated by federal laws.