While the Central Bank of Russia has intensified efforts to develop and issue the digital currency, it also provides a plan for full implementation of this new fiat. It is expected that the roadmap for its completion will be completed by 2023. Next April will see the start of trials with actual transactions and users, which is earlier than initially planned.
Bank of Russia presents digital ruble roadmap next year
According to First Deputy Chairman Olga Skorobogatova in an interview with Tass, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation has developed a roadmap that will allow the introduction of the digital ruble before the end of 2023.
A high ranking official noted also that testing with digital currencies (CBDCs) of the Russian central banks will begin as soon as April 2023. This indicates that these plans are being adjusted. Skorobogatova stated that it will be crucial to the project’s success in 2019 and provided further details:
We can test real operations to see what is needed to adjust and refine it, as well as what should be changed. The roadmap to the launch of the digital ruble is being developed.
The deputy governor stated that twelve banks currently participate in the pilot. Three more banks are interested in joining the pilot, and several other non-financial organisations have also applied.
Olga Skorobogatova remarked it’s too early to talk about results from the current stage as the participants are moving at different speeds. “But more than half of the banks in the pilot group are progressing at a very good pace, we meet the stated deadlines,” she said.
The importance of the CBDC project has increased amid mounting Western sanctions over Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine. The executive added that the central bank will have to work out cross-border interactions between the digital ruble and other countries’ digital currencies in order to make the Russian financial system more independent.
“In my opinion, all self-respecting states will have a national digital currency within three years. And we will need to build cross-border cooperation in that direction as well,” Skorobogatova commented. “We definitely need to be ready as soon as possible. Plus, this, among other things, solves the problem with SWIFT, because with such integration, SWIFT will no longer be needed,” she explained.
In a October 2020 report, the Bank of Russia introduced the idea of the digital ruble. The CBDC’s prototype platform was finalized in December 2021 and the pilot phase was initiated in January of this year. CBR, Russian commercial banks, and the CBR plan to trial various forms of digital ruble payments, such as settlements for real-estate deals.
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