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Russian Central Bank forms pilot group of 12 banks for testing digital ruble

The plan is to complete the development of the platform prototype in December, and to start the testing in January 2022

Bank of Russia Gavriil Grigorov/TASS

Bank of Russia

© Gavriil Grigorov/TASS

MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/. The Bank of Russia has formed a pilot group of 12 banks for testing the digital ruble platform, the regulator said in a press release on Tuesday.

"The first pilot group has been formed for testing the digital ruble. The group consists of 12 banks that have stated willingness to participate in the pilot project and submitted respective letters to the Bank of Russia," the Central Bank said.

The plan is to complete the development of the digital ruble platform prototype in December, and to start the testing in January 2022, the regulator said. "It will have several stages during the whole year. Following the results of that work a roadmap on introducing the digital ruble will be formed," it added.

At the first stage it is planned to test the issuing of the digital ruble and a number of other transactions. It is suggested that the list of tested transactions will be expanded in the future. Moreover, the number of participants of the pilot project is planned to increase.

According to the information provided by the Bank of Russia, the group particularly includes VTB, Alfa-Bank, Sberbank, Tinkoff, Promsvyazbank, and Gazprombank.

About the digital ruble

The Bank of Russia presented the digital ruble concept in a report in mid-October 2020. It will be in the form of a unique digital code that will be stored in a special electronic wallet.

The digital ruble will be a full-fledged circulating medium equal to ordinary ruble and will be able to be widely-used by households, businesses and the state in the payment area, ensuring simplicity of payments, their high speed, low costs and high reliability.

The Central Bank will issue the digital ruble.

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