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State Duma passes bill on digital financial assets

The Central Bank is vested with the authority to maintain the register of information systems and the register of operators of digital financial assets exchange and supervise the business of information system operators

MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian diet, approved in the third reading the bill on digital financial assets and digital currency.

The approved version of the law gives a definition to the digital currency. The digital currency is recognized as an aggregate of electronic data capable of being accepted as the payment means, not being the monetary unit of the Russian Federation or a foreign state, and as investments. The digital currency cannot be used at the same time to pay for any goods and services. The law sets forth that digital financial assets or DFA are digital rights comprising money claims, ability to exercise rights under negotiable securities, rights to participate in equity of a non-public stock company and right to claim transfer of negotiable securities set in a resolution on the DFA issue

Digital assets can be issued, purchased and sold and registered within the framework of special information systems. Systems and their operators shall conform to Russian laws and stand filed in a relevant register kept by the Bank of Russia. The Central Bank will have the right to determine features of digital assets accessible by qualified investors only.

The law prescribes rules of floating and circulation of digital financial assets. The Central Bank is vested with the authority to maintain the register of information systems and the register of operators of digital financial assets exchange and supervise the business of information system operators.

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