The Central Bank of the Russian Federation announced tests of the digital ruble with the involvement of a limited number of participants, "Izvestia" wrote. ICB, Promsvyazbank, Zenit, Dom.RF and RNB have already expressed their willingness to support the project.
According to information from the State Duma, the experiment may be conducted in the first half of next year. It is proposed to transfer the digital ruble to the "wallet", which will be the analogue of a bank card. To work with the new system will need to reconfigure payment terminals in retail outlets, the publication says.
The Central Bank noted that if the new form of the ruble is approved, citizens will be able to receive their salaries, allowances and other payments. The regulator itself will be responsible for the development of the payment platform for digital currency.
The agency expects that the new system will reduce payment fees compared to other non-cash methods. Commercial banks may be given the opportunity to offer customers additional services based on the digital ruble.
Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Market, said that a number of companies have shown interest in the digital rouble, and everything is ready for its legal and technological testing.
"The digital currency of the Central Bank will be in demand, as it simplifies transactions on the Internet. However, if there is no element of anonymity inherent in cash or bills of exchange, the attitude of the population is likely to be wary," said Deputy Head of the National Council of Financial Market Alexander Naumov.
We remind that the publication of the report of the Bank of Russia on the digital ruble for public consultations took place on October 13. The authors of the report stressed that the digital ruble would not be a cryptovoltaic currency. At the same time, a distributed system is being considered for technical implementation of the tool. The Central Bank noted that such systems are characterized by high stability, but, as a rule, work slower than centralized analogues.