​Russia’s State Duma Council will consider the bill on the digital ruble in the first reading

What’s new? On January 16, the Russian State Duma Council considered and put on the agenda for the first reading a draft law on the digital ruble Kommersant reports. According to the explanatory note, the document aims to “develop the payment infrastructure, increasing the availability, speed, convenience, and security of payments while reducing costs through legislative consolidation of approaches to the transfer of digital rubles.” The draft amends the laws “On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia),” “On Banks and Banking Activity,” “On the National Payment System” and several others.

Kommersant’s material

What else does the publication say? The draft law is a framework, a more detailed regulatory framework will be developed by the Central Bank. It will be able to create or participate in the capital of organizations necessary to create a platform for the digital ruble and to ensure its operation. Also, the Central Bank will set tariffs for the services of the platform operator and the amount of remuneration of its participants, the maximum fee charged by participants from clients, and the maximum amount of transactions and balances on digital wallets.

In addition, the regulator will develop procedures, a list of transactions, and terms for credit institutions to provide customers with the ability to make transactions with digital rubles. The Central Bank will organize and ensure the stable functioning of the platform and will be responsible for the safety of assets and the accuracy of recording information about transactions with them.

According to Roman Prokhorov, the head of the board of the Financial Innovations Association, as a result, the Central Bank will become the operator of the digital ruble platform and will have the authority to ensure its functioning and protect the interests of the platform users. He said that the date of entry into force of the main provisions (April 1) corresponds to the regulator’s plans for the pilot project.

Kirill Nikitin, head of the directorate at the Vegas Lex law firm, stressed that the procedure for issuing the digital ruble will also need to be established. Nikolay Titov, the co-founder of the law firm a.t.Legal, explained that the digital ruble is an independent form of Russian national currency along with cash and non-cash currency, while according to the law “On Digital Financial Assets,” digital currency is defined as a set of electronic data, which, despite its use as a means of payment, is not the monetary unit of the country.

In December 2022, Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market of the Russian Federation, said that the digital ruble could be put into circulation in Q1 2023.