The Bank of Russia will prepare a list of initiatives to regulate CFA

The heads of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation announced the readiness of the regulator for regulatory and technological support for alternative areas of the financial industry.

Elvira, Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Russia, spoke at the Finopolis forum dedicated to innovations in the financial industry Nabiullina said that the time when financial institutions were considered very conservative, albeit reliable, "has gone deep into the past."

The head of the Central Bank believes that, despite the pragmatism inherent in the financial industry, it is necessary to gradually shift the emphasis from the utilitarian use of traditional technologies to innovation. This will allow not to lose the technological advantage.

In particular, this concerns the introduction of tokenized cashless payments, the prospects for the development of digital financial assets (DFA) and the digital ruble, as well as the future place of decentralized finance (DeFi) in the traditional financial market.

Deputy Head of the Central Bank Olga Skorobogatova explained that the regulator pursues three goals in its work: improve taxation and exclude tax arbitrage, develop exchange platforms and regulate smart contracts.

“As we said, from April 2023 we will launch real transactions with some clients on the digital ruble platform. Now we have 15 banks in the pilot project, 10 of them have already developed their mobile applications and are testing the client path, which is a very good new tool for financial market participants, and by the end of the year we plan to form a list of regulatory initiatives,” Olga Skorobogatova said.

The official said that the regulator has begun considering nine applications from companies seeking a license to issue and distribute digital financial assets. She noted that three “information system operators” are already authorized to do this - Sberbank, Atomize and Mayak.

The Central Bank previously released a consultation report in which he spoke about the state of affairs with digital financial assets (DFA) and the prospects for the development of this area.