Russia’s Biggest Bank to Introduce CBDC Services for Customers by 2025

Sberbank, Russia’s top banking institution, is set to initiate customer transactions using the digital ruble by early 2025, as revealed by Anatoly Popov, the bank’s deputy chief executive. This move is part of Russia’s broader efforts to integrate the central bank digital currency (CBDC) into everyday banking activities.

The bank is preparing to join the second phase of CBDC trials alongside roughly 20 other financial entities. Popov emphasized that Sberbank is gearing up for “actual operations with customers” involving the digital ruble starting in 2025.

The Bank of Russia, which unveiled a prototype of the digital ruble in December 2021, commenced pilot tests in 2022. By August 2023, the pilot included employees and clients from 13 banks. The central bank broadened the testing scope significantly in early September 2024, involving up to 9,000 individuals and 1,200 businesses.

The Russian central bank also hinted that the digital ruble might be ready for wider public use by July 2025 and clarified that the digital currency is intended to supplement, not substitute, the existing forms of the ruble. Following China’s lead, Russia views the digital yuan’s adoption—evidenced by its use for state salary payments in Changshu—as a model for its digital currency efforts.

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