Guidelines for Cash Circulation Development in 2021–2025 approved

The document approved by the Bank of Russia Board of Directors stipulates top-priority areas for cash circulation development, including, among other things, ensuring a stable cash flow, cost reduction through technical infrastructure improvement, and the development of partnership with banks providing for the transfer to them of the Bank of Russia’s cash for safekeeping.

An important area for development specified in the new document is a stage-by-stage upgrade of banknotes to enhance their quality. In 2021–2025, the Bank of Russia will create and issue six upgraded banknotes with an advanced security complex and modern design.

Upgraded 100-ruble banknotes are expected to be issued into circulation in 2022, 1,000- and 5,000-ruble banknotes — in 2023, 500-ruble banknotes — in 2024, and 10- and 50-ruble banknotes — in 2025.

The images of Saint Petersburg and Moscow will remain on the obverse of 50- and 100-ruble banknotes. On the reverse, they will have the images of the sights of the North-Western and Central Federal Districts where respective cities are located.

The obverse of upgraded 10-, 500-, 1,000-, and 5,000-ruble banknotes will have the images of Novosibirsk, Pyatigorsk, Nizhny Novgorod, and Yekaterinburg, and their reverse will depict the sights of the Siberian, North Caucasian, Volga, and Urals Federal Districts.

‘The design and basic security complex of 1997-style banknotes were developed nearly 30 years ago. Over 2001–2010, the Bank of Russia issued twelve modifications of these banknotes. However, the security complex of banknotes has not been enhanced over the last ten years. Therefore, it is time now to continue its upgrade, simultaneously renewing the design of banknotes. As the portion of new upgraded banknotes to be issued in 2022–2025 increases in the cash flow, they will be used for at least the next ten years along with all the existing banknotes and their modifications’, said Bank of Russia Deputy Governor Mikhail Alekseev.