MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/. Testing digital rubles on real transactions with real clients may begin as early as August, head of the State Duma Committee on the financial market, Anatoly Aksakov, told TASS. The State Duma is the lower house of the Russian parliament.
"We expect that the pilot project will be launched in August. Because, in principle, all participants in the process are at the start, everyone is waiting for the signing of the law," he said.
The deputy noted that before the adoption of the law in the third reading, a number of changes were made to it. In particular, the concept of digital currencies of foreign states was clarified, which will be necessary for the possibility of exchanging digital national currencies in international settlements.
Also, according to the law, in case of bankruptcy of a legal entity, digital rubles will have to be counted on a special account of the debtor.
The law also clarifies that actions to counter fraud will also apply to digital rubles. At the same time, the interaction of various services, such as the Central Bank, the FSB, he Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation and others, was more clearly defined to ensure the security and uninterrupted operation of the digital ruble platform.
On July 11, the State Duma adopted a law that creates the basis for the introduction of the digital ruble and the implementation of cashless payments using the digital ruble.
It was planned to start testing real payments with the digital ruble from April 1, 2023, but by that time the package of bills on the digital ruble passed only the first reading in the State Duma. The Bank of Russia stated that testing will begin only after the adoption of the necessary regulatory legislation.