Bank of Russia presents Digital Ruble Concept
The concept is based on the feedback received from respondents and market participants following the discussion of the consultation paper ‘A Digital Ruble’. The document describes the advantages of a digital ruble, its target model, the monetary policy approaches related to the introduction of a digital ruble, as well as the key stages of the implementation process.
The selected target model is a two-tier retail model which assumes that the Bank of Russia is both the issuer of digital rubles and the operator of the digital ruble platform. At the same time, financial institutions open electronic wallets for their clients and perform operations over these wallets on the digital ruble platform.
Households and businesses will be able to access their digital rubles through any bank where they are serviced.
The selected model will make it possible to use the benefits of the existing two-tier financial system and enable the interaction between clients and the digital ruble platform through financial institutions’ mobile applications.
Other regulators’ research and pilot tests of central bank digital currencies demonstrate that a two-tier retail model is the most preferable in terms of both innovations and stability in the financial market.
The introduction of a digital ruble will help reduce costs for households and businesses, increase the speed of payments, and develop innovative products and services in the financial industry and the economy in general.