MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. The Bank of Russia reported that another 17 credit institutions are preparing to join the digital ruble pilot project, including Sberbank, Tinkoff Bank, Russian Agricultural Bank, and Expobank, according to the regulator's press service.

The Bank of Russia noted that banks have already signed an agreement to join the regulator's digital ruble platform and are now preparing their systems to join the pilot project when it is expanded. The list of such credit institutions has appeared on the regulator's website and will be updated.

Currently, 13 banks, about 600 individuals, and almost 30 trade and service companies are participating in the test operations with real digital rubles.

The Bank of Russia and a group of banks began testing operations with the digital ruble in August 2023. At the first stage, active operations are tested, such as opening wallets in digital rubles for banks and clients (individuals and legal entities), transferring digital rubles between clients, and payments at trade and service enterprises.

As of December 2023, the number of wallets opened during the pilot project reached 497, while the number of transactions exceeded 13,700.