At the first stage of the digital ruble test, the opening and replenishment of digital ruble accounts, digital ruble transfers between citizens, simple automatic payments and payment for purchases and services using a QR code. According to the press service of Sovcombank, this was announced at a joint press conference between the Bank of Russia and companies participating in the digital ruble test pilot project.
It was noted that participants in the pilot will be able to pay in digital rubles at 30 retail outlets in 11 Russian cities.
Olga Skorobogatova, First Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Russia, described the launch of pilot operations with real digital rubles as the most important stage of the project.
“This will allow us to test the operation of the digital ruble platform already in an industrial environment, carry out all the necessary procedures with the participation of customers, adjust processes if necessary, and make sure that the customer path is convenient and understandable for users. . “Based on the results of the phased tests and based on the successful completion of the piloting of all scenarios for operations with the digital ruble, we plan to put the digital ruble into mass circulation.”
According to Sergey Khotimsky, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sovcombank, the digital ruble is indeed a very important project and is of great international importance, especially in the face of sanctions pressure.
“The fork is very simple: you are either out of progress or at the cutting edge and you really try to compete if more profitable opportunities arise for you. All in all, this is an interesting challenge. “I will not ignore the “elephant in the room” and say that there are no difficulties and problems for the banks,” he said.
In his view, a new situation arises in connection with this, in which the Central Bank will have to find a balance in how this will affect liquidity standards. “But we have time for that, it’s a pretty long process. We trust the Central Bank in this sense,” he said.
By the end of this year, the list of pilot participants is planned to be expanded by attracting both citizens and companies. As the participants of the event noted, the digital ruble will not be a store of value and will not be used for lending. At the same time, next year, a payment scenario using a dynamic QR code, the transaction list will be populated with transfers between legal entities. In addition, the templates will be expanded for simple automatic payments.