Alfa-Bank gains DFA issuer status

The Bank of Russia included Alfa-Bank in the register of information-system operators. Obtaining this status gives the company the right to issue and circulate digital financial assets (DFA) within the platform.

The bank has already launched the ‘A-Token’ platform for these purposes, said RBC‘s Head of Innovation at Alfa-Bank, Denis Dodon.

According to him, two types of DFAs are being prepared for issue: the equivalents of traditional financial instruments in the form of monetary claims, and tokenised physical assets.

“At the core of the platform’s operation lies the principle of a safe deal — the investor advances funds for it. If the issue attracts the minimum required number of applications, the funds will be credited to the issuer, and if not — returned to investors. The same principle applies on the secondary market — smart contracts assume the asset is with the seller, and the bank gateway ensures the money is with the buyer,” said Dodon.

The platform’s infrastructure will also be available to market issuers. Clients will gain access through the bank’s mobile app.

A pilot issuance of digital financial assets is planned for the end of February.

Currently, licenses to issue DFAs in Russia are also held by the fintech platform Lighthouse, Sberbank and the company Atomyze.

According to the Bank of Russia, as of November 2022 these three operators carried out in total 15 issuances of digital financial assets for a total of 170 million rubles.

Earlier, in December 2022, Lighthouse conducted a deal with DFAs for 58 million yuan (about 500 million rubles), secured by commercial debt.

In Russia there is a law that prohibits the payment of goods and services with digital financial assets and utilitarian digital rights.