The Russian central bank held a working meeting at the end of last year on implementing tokenised cashless payments. This was stated by the Bank of Russia to \u00ab\u0418\u0437\u0432\u0435\u0441\u0442\u0438\u044f\u043c\u00bb.<\/p>\n
Representatives of the Association of Banks of Russia, VTB and PSB attended the meeting. The regulator plans to continue the discussion after surveying market participants on this topic, a survey being conducted by the Association of Banks of Russia.<\/p>\n
According to its vice-president Alexei Voilukov, the concept of tokenised settlements had already been proposed by the central bank as an alternative to the digital ruble, but the central bank took a sceptical view of the idea.<\/p>\n
\n“If tokens are attached to current cashless payments, transactions will become named and personalised. There is no need to create a new architecture \u2014 it is enough to fine-tune the existing systems. It is assumed that such a tool would not act as a counterweight to the digital ruble \u2014 it would be another option,” said Voilukov.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
He also noted that tokenisation of cashless payments would make it easy to track transactions involving budgetary funds.<\/p>\n
PSB said that the market’s priority remains the rollout of the digital ruble.<\/p>\n
Earlier it was reported that a prototype of the platform for the central bank’s new digital asset is ready<\/a>, and banks have begun testing operations<\/a> with the digital ruble or are actively preparing for its launch.<\/p>\n