Russia's central bank, the Bank of Russia, is planning to start international payments with digital ruble as soon as next year as sanctions over Ukraine bite, Reuters reports.
Subscribe to our Telegram channel to get daily short digests about events that shape the crypto world
The regulator is reportedly also eager to expand the number of countries that accept its Visa & Mastercard banking alternative called MIR. Russian central bank chief Elvira Nabiullina said:
"The digital ruble is among the priority projects. We have fairly quickly created a prototype [...] now we are holding tests with banks and next year we will gradually have pilot transactions."
Russia has been working on its own digital version of the national currency over the past few years as the pace toward global digitization accelerates. In February, Russian banks started testing the digital ruble platform. The central bank listed 12 banks, including sanctioned VTB and PSB into its pilot group.
As iHodl reported, the digital version of Russian ruble will be issued only by the Bank of Russia itself and stored in electronic wallets under the central bank's control. Financial institutions will act as intermediaries between the watchdog and users. These intermediates will attract users and interact with them, open and replenish wallets for them, execute transfer orders, as well as carry out AML and KYC policies. Users will be able to access their digital wallet from any bank via mobile application.
Access more than 50 of the world's financial markets directly from your EXANTE account – including NASDAQ, London Stock Exchange and Tokyo Stock Exchange