Russia’s Central Bank to start connecting all banks to the digital ruble platform in 2024

What’s new? The Bank of Russia said that in 2024, all banks will begin to connect to the digital ruble platform in stages. This will increase the number of available payment options and transactions using smart contracts. The regulator assumes that as the Federal Treasury is ready, payments using digital rubles between the state and individuals/businesses will be available. This is reported by Prime with reference to the Draft Monetary Policy Guidelines for 2023-2025.

Information on Prime's website

What else did the Central Bank say? In 2023, the Bank of Russia intends to test settlements “in real money” between individuals (C2C), as well as individuals and businesses (C2B/B2C). The regulator also noted that a limited number of participants will be able to enter into and execute smart contracts on the digital ruble platform. The Central Bank plans to implement the offline mode of the digital ruble with subsequent connection of non-banking financial intermediaries and exchange infrastructure to the platform by 2025.

At the same time, according to the Central Bank, there is no reason to expect that the introduction of the digital ruble will be followed by a large-scale outflow of funds from bank deposits, because the latter will remain attractive for depositors due to the interest income and bonus programs.

In June, Olga Skorobogatova, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia, said that the implementation of the digital ruble into the domestic financial system and ensuring cross-border interaction with digital currencies of other countries would replace SWIFT amid Russian institutions’ disconnection from this international system.

Chairman of the Committee on Financial Markets of the State Duma Anatoly Aksakov noted that in the fall of 2022, Russian lawmakers would begin work on legalizing the digital ruble as a third form of money, the asset will be used as a means of payment in a distributed ledger. Initially, testing of the asset was planned to start in 2024, but the development of the project was accelerated due to sanctions.