Digital ruble in Russian civil circulation: challenges and perspectives

Abstract

Recently, Russia, as well as the whole world, has undergone changes in the payment market, along with cash funds, cashless methods of paying for goods and services, payments and transfers. Despite this, the demand of market participants for increasing the speed, convenience and security of cashless payments and transfers, as well as a decrease in bank commissions, is constantly growing. In order to facilitate the digitalization of the financial market, the Bank of Russia is already implementing such infrastructure projects as the Fast Payment System, the Unified Biometric System, the Digital Profile, the Know Your Client platform and is actively exploring the possibility of introducing a digital national currency. In 2019, the Bank of Russia prepared the first report – a study on the prospects for digital currencies of central banks, and in 2020 it published a report for public consultations “Digital Ruble”. Taking into account the results of public discussion of this document, in April 2021 the Bank of Russia presented the Concept of the Digital Ruble, in which it presented the features of the implementation of the target model of the digital ruble. The paper is devoted to the analysis of the Concept of the Digital Ruble proposed by the Bank of Russia, its main advantages and disadvantages.