Sberbank proposes turning all non-cash rubles into digital form

Sberbank has presented its own model for issuing and circulating the digital ruble, which differs from the Central Bank of Russia’s vision. It was described by Sberbank’s Chairman of the Executive Board, Anatoly Popov, at a Bank of Russia meeting with market participants dedicated to the digital ruble.

As RBC writes, citing the presentation, Sberbank proposes assigning to each digital ruble a tracking number and ‘attributes’, and conducting payments under smart-contract terms. The latter could address the issue of misallocation of funds, Popov noted.

\”We propose enabling tokenisation of all non-cash rubles under a single set of rules established by the Central Bank,\” the presentation states.

According to this model, \”commercial banks do not issue their own currency, they only account for their non-cash money otherwise — as unique tokens,\” says «Prime», citing the presentation. The Central Bank will retain the role of regulator of token circulation, the state will gain \”unprecedented instruments of control,\” and business will be able to create new smart-contract-based products, according to Sberbank.

The Bank of Russia, for its part, emphasised that it sees the digital ruble as a third form of money, built on a distributed ledger.

\”We would also like to build a new infrastructure that provides new capabilities for seamless digital settlements among all participants and would allow the industry to reduce costs overall,\” said Skorobogatova.

At the same time, the Bank of Russia is ready to discuss the use of smart contracts for settlements with the digital ruble, she noted.

According to a Bank of Russia representative, regulators’ experience in testing such technologies shows that the platform works best when combining distributed ledger technology with a centralized engine that processes a large number of operations.

Sberbank also expressed concerns that the central bank’s view of the digital ruble would create competition between banks and the regulator.

\”A system in which part of clients’ balances are held by banks and part — in the central bank’s wallet, would pit banks against the Bank of Russia. Competition would arise over whose balance is bigger and better,\” Popov said.

The Bank of Russia stressed that digital-ruble settlements will indeed compete with non-cash payments, in a way that improves both.

Earlier, Andrey Kostin, president of VTB, stated that the introduction of the digital ruble could lead to some business moving from banks to the Bank of Russia.

Also, Bank of Russia head Elvira Nabiullina noted that the digital ruble could potentially affect the business models of banks.

Moody’s analysts believe that the central bank’s issuance of its own digital currency could hit the retail accounts of Russia’s banks.

The Bank of Russia presented a report on the digital ruble in October 2020.

For details on the model proposed by the central bank, read ForkLog’s exclusive.

Accessibility and traceability: how the Bank of Russia sees the digital ruble

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