The National Bank of Belarus offers banks an experiment to issue tokens

06/10/2020

Lena Dzhess

Financial regulator of Belarusplans to involve banks in the creation and implementation of transactions with tokens. Sputnik Belarus informs about it.

According to the draft decree, financial institutions will be able to issue utility tokens and carry out their initial offers to attract funding in national and foreign currencies.

Banks will also be allowed to purchase third-party tokens, including tokens from other banks and cryptocurrency platform operators.

«Banks are not allowed to receive cryptocurrencies», — is emphasized in the text of the justification.

Financial institutions will be able tocarried out only through the mediation of the residents of the High-Tech Park (HTP), on the territory of which there is a special legal regime. These include the exchanges Currency.com, iExchange and Free2ex.com, as well as the Finstore.by investment platform.

Head of Public Information Department andof international cooperation of the HTP administration Kirill Zalessky told ForkLog that the listed companies have the right to carry out the activities of ICO organizers:

«There are already specific examples whenbusiness entities have issued their tokens on these platforms, but banks, taking into account their specifics, do not yet have such an opportunity. The National Bank's initiative will allow banks to turn to one of these companies to issue tokens.

All responsibility for the implementation of laws and proper identification of token holders during transactions will lie with the specified residents.

In turn, the National Bank will be able to establish the specifics of banks' transactions with tokens and control such activities.

12 banks will take part in the initiative:Belarusbank, Belagroprombank, Bank Dabrabyt, Paritetbank, BPS-Sberbank, Belgazprombank, Bank BelVEB, BTA Bank, BSB Bank, Bank «Resolution», RRB-Bank, Belarusian People's Bank.

Due to potential risks, the amount of funds provided and attracted will be limited to 10% of the banks' regulatory capital.

The experiment is proposed to be carried out from January 1, 2021 to January 1, 2024. The results will be presented to the President of Belarus by March 1, 2024.

Now the draft decree has been sent for approval to government agencies and financial institutions.

Viktor Prokopenya, an IT businessman and founder of VP Capital, told ForkLog that Belarus is gradually creating regulation to create a full-fledged modern financial center.

«Initiative of the National Bank to conductThe experiment on the use of tokens for the development of the investment market is another step in this direction. The freer and more convenient it is for investments to move around the country, the faster the economy will develop. This is especially relevant in the current situation of a phenomenal decline in global GDP due to coronavirus,” he noted.

As a reminder, on March 28, 2018, Belarus entered thethe Decree on the Development of the Digital Economy, which established the framework conditions for the use of cryptocurrency and tokens, and also introduced tax incentives for cryptocurrency transactions.