​Sberbank proposes to legalize payments in DFAs

What’s new? Sberbank is in favor of implementing the possibility of payments in digital financial assets (DFAs). Alexander Vedyakhin, First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of the bank, announced it at the Fintech conference. However, this initiative faces resistance from the Bank of Russia, the Interfax news agency reports.

Information on the Interfax website

What other statements have been made? According to Vedyakhin, Sberbank and the Bank of Russia have disagreed on the possibility of payments using DFAs. Vedyakhin believes that “it would be good to be able to pay, that is, to make certain transactions,” but the regulator is against it. The parties continue discussions and hope to reach a common position on this issue.

Vedyakhin added that it is unlikely to be possible to pay with DFAs for assets of medium-sized companies, but if in question are DFAs for gold, they will have a clear confirmed value.

The deputy chairman said that the market of DFAs will grow and that it will be possible to attract liquidity to it by allowing individuals to enter it. Sberbank plans to do this as early as the end of Q1 or the beginning of Q2 2023. Another trend for the near future is an increase in the number of platforms for the issuance of DFAs. Companies such as Masterchain, Alfa-Bank, and the Moscow Exchange may enter the market.

On December 12, Sberbank announced the issuance of DFAs for gold on its own blockchain platform. The asset will allow getting investment income depending on the dynamics of the price of gold. The main advantage of the new financial instrument will be the quick and convenient process of making a deal, which is made in the information system at the request of the investor using a smart contract without intermediaries.

At the end of November, Atomyze, a digital asset platform, conducted its first trade with individuals. Unqualified investors were able to buy DFAs for palladium. Earlier, Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, said that 2023 would be the “year of the DFAs” in Russia.