The Bank of Russia will assess the prospects for issuing a digital ruble

The Central Bank of Russia will study the need to issue a digital ruble and possible options for its implementation.

According to a published report, the regulatorwill assess the economic and technical prospects of the digital ruble, which will complement cash and electronic money. By the end of the year, the Central Bank wants to collect expert opinions on this issue.

The document provides a brief description of the main characteristics of the new system. According to the Bank of Russia, the digital ruble can increase the security of payments, reduce their costs, and increasecompetition among financial institutions, to promote macroeconomic and financial stability.

At the same time, it will complement existing formsmoney, not replace it, be freely convertible into physical or electronic form 1: 1, and serve as a legal means of payment. However, the regulator notes that transactions will not be anonymous, since identification will be required to transfer funds, and all data will be recorded on the Central Bank platform.

Other benefits includethe ability to perform transactions offline, by transferring a digital code directly between devices, which will improve the financial infrastructure in remote and sparsely populated areas.

The Central Bank already has a certain base for this project, since since 2019 it has been testing options for national stablecoins in the regulatory sandbox.

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