According to Olga Skorobogatova, deputy governor of the Bank of Russia, pilot testing for the digital ruble will be conducted in Moscow and ten other locations. The trials, which will include more than a dozen Russian banks, are going to start with actual users and transactions in the middle of August.
Russia Prepares to Pilot Operations With New Digital Ruble
The Russian Federation's financial regulators and institutions are getting ready to use actual real-world transactions to test the country's central bank digital currency (CBDC). On August 15, the trials are scheduled to start.
According to Olga Skorobogatova, first deputy chair of the Central Bank of Russia, who made the announcement at a press conference, around 600 people and 30 firms will take part in the pilot's initial phase.
The number of participants will be raised after the initial group's operations are verified, she added. 11 Russian cities will participate in the testing, including Moscow, where digital ruble transactions will be introduced to the nation's public transit network.
According to Maxim Liksutov, deputy mayor for transport, the metro system in the capital has served as a trial ground for new technologies. According to him, local government officials intend to begin selling digital ruble tickets in the Moscow metro and subsequently accept CBDC payments in other forms of urban transit.
Skorobogatova made the announcement that 13 Russian banks will participate in the digital ruble pilot earlier this week. Sergey Khotimsky, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sovcombank, explained at the briefing that commercial banks will also compete with the digital ruble platform.
We will aim to emulate what banks did with cash, when they developed services and put in place frameworks to make non-cash money more lucrative and fascinating. And we shall keep doing it.
Khotimsky stressed that Russian banking organizations wanted the bank account to continue being the primary account for Russians. Officials have already made it clear that the digital ruble, which is Russia's third form of fiat, is meant to supplement paper money and electronic bank money rather than to replace them.
Both houses of parliament approved legislation in July that governs the launch of the digital currency issued by the Russian central bank. Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, also signed into law the digital ruble bill last month, paving the way for CBDC payments throughout the nation.