A senior representative of the Bank of Russia recently announced that users of the Bank of Russia’s digital currency will pay for each transaction. However, the digital ruble fee will not exceed the fee currently applicable to rapid payments in the country.

Russian banks will charge transfer fees in digital rubles

The Central Bank of Russia (Community rehabilitation) Plans to charge fees for transactions with digital rubles, according to Kirill Pronin, director of the financial technology department of the regulator. The official emphasized that these commissions will be lower than the current transfer fees of the banking industry.

In a speech at the forum entitled “Russian Banking System: Ensuring the Availability of Services and Resources in the Face of Increasing Risks”, Pronin further pointed out that the cost will certainly not exceed the cost of using the Russian fast payment system for transfers (First-person shooter). The business news agency Prime quoted him as saying:

We assume that the cost of trading in digital rubles will be lower than the current wire transfer fees of market participants, and will never be higher than the commission within the FPS framework.

Russia launched a faster payment system in January 2019. It allows Russian residents to send money using only their phone number and use QR codes to pay for goods and services. Transfers of up to 100,000 rubles (approximately 1,350 USD) per month are free. Transfers exceeding this amount will be charged 0.5%, but not more than 1,500 rubles (approximately 20 USD).

Digital currency of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Central Business District) Is still under development and experts are working on its precise format. It is expected that the digital ruble will be implemented as a unique code, stored in a special electronic wallet, and become a mature payment tool together with the other two forms of ordinary rubles-cash and bank currency.

The Bank of Russia started to consider issuing digital rubles as early as 2018 and decided to explore the possibility of issuing CBDC last year. A consultation document was released in October 2020 to collect feedback from financial sector participants and other stakeholders. In April 2021, the authorities released the digital ruble concept, outlining its main architecture.

In June, the monetary authority established a pilot group of more than a dozen banks. CBR plans to complete the prototype of the platform in December 2021 and start trials in January 2022.The bank’s chairman Elvira Nabiullina recently statement The digital ruble will provide Russian citizens with an alternative to cryptocurrency and legally-backed stablecoins, while enabling cheap and reliable payments.

Do you think Russians would prefer to use the digital ruble platform instead of the existing remittance methods? Tell us in the comments section below.

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