Today Russia’s Central Bank said it planned to launch a public consultation over a possible digital ruble. The comments came after a meeting organized by Russia’s Association of Banks. The central bank published its first report on a possible digital ruble in October. In January, the association responded, raising concerns about the impact, particularly on regional and smaller banks.
“In the near future we will summarize the full results of public consultations, then we will develop a more detailed concept of the digital ruble and at the beginning of summer we will discuss it with the public, with market participants, with banks,” said Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Bank of Russia, as reported by Interfax news agency.
“The next step is the creation of a platform prototype, testing it, limited experiments. Of course, it will be necessary to amend the legislation.”
Meanwhile, the Governor had previously dismissed the idea of a private digital ruble. Nonetheless, the topic of Sberbank’s planned stablecoin was raised, and the central bank said it was willing to consider it, according to RBC.
“The digital ruble is the Central Bank’s obligation and the Central Bank’s platform,” said Olga Skorobogatova, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia. She contrasted that with Sberbank’s proposal. “The tokenization of non-cash is directly transferring existing non-cash funds, which are the obligations of credit institutions, into a tokenized form. We are currently conducting this discussion. We will definitely continue it with market participants,” she said, also noting that there are more questions than answers.
