Russia set for CBDC in Q2

The Central Bank of Russia is set to launch the first consumer pilot for the nation’s Central Bank Digital Currency (SBCD) on April 1, 2023.

The Nation’s apex bank is preparing to soon debut the first real-world digital ruble transactions involving 13 local banks and several merchants. This is according to what the first Deputy Governor Olga Skorobogatova said.

According to local media news reports, the official noted that the CBDC pilot coming in April will involve real operations and consumers in Russia, but the operations would be limited to a number of transactions and customers.

Speaking during the Ural Forum Cybersecurity in France, Skorobogatova stated, that the Central Bank’ “planned to launch the digital ruble project on April 1, with transactions involving individual transfers as well as payments in trade and service enterprises,” She also added, that the banks participating in the pilot have ethnically confirmed their readiness to start testing the digital ruble.

The official made it clear that regular customers would not be able to access the pilot in its first stage, as customers would be handpicked by the banks entering into the pilot program. The first stage is used to gauge how well the innovation works, and the nation’s Apex Bank will determine how to scale and improve Digital Currency further. 

The latest announcement by Skorobogatova follows the roadmap for the digital ruble rollout that the central bank officially introduced in June 2022. Initially scheduled for 2024, the consumer CBDC pilot was moved to an earlier date as the Russian central bank was looking for alternatives to the SWIFT payments system amid Western economic sanctions against Russia.

Bank of Russia’s first deputy governor Vladimir Chistyukhin believes that such a “golden token” will help Russia create a new attractive investment product and build a demanded payment method in international settlement.

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