Russia's central bank the Bank of Russia has no plans on using the digital ruble for bank deposits or loans, Russia's TASS reports, citing Aleksey Zabotkin, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia.
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Zabotkin says the current versions of the digital currency is not considered for creating bank deposits.
"Deposits in the digital ruble will not be provided, they will not be part of the digital ruble mechanism in the same way as loans in the digital ruble will also be impossible to issue," he added.
Zabotkin emphasized that with the launch of the digital currency, the Bank of Russia does not want to compete with the banking community for accepting deposits in the savings market.
Russia's largest lender Sberbank previously warned that local financial institutions can lose up to four trillion rubles (~$54.8 billion) due to the digital ruble.
Anatoly Popov, Deputy Chairman of the executive board of Sberbank, said that the bank's experts project that the financial sector might lose approximately four trillion rubles just three years after the potential launch of the digital ruble. The analysts also expect that the issuance of the digital ruble by replacing fiat and non-cash money will lead to a "significant" drop of banks' liquidity.
Russia might start testing its own version of the digital ruble at the end of 2021.
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