Bill on issuance of digital ruble in Russia submitted to Duma

MOSCOW. Dec 29 (Interfax) - A group of State Duma lawmakers and Federation Council members has submitted to the Duma a bill regulating the circulation and issuance of the digital ruble in Russia's legal environment.

The document has been filed in the Duma's electronic database.

"The bill is aimed at developing the payment infrastructure with respect to expanding the use of digital technology by individuals, businesses, and the state, improving the availability, speed, convenience, and safety of settlements, and reducing the costs through the legislative codification of approaches toward transfers of digital rubles," an explanatory note to the bill says.

"The broader use of digital technology through introducing the digital ruble should improve the availability, speed, convenience, and safety of settlements, at the same time reducing the costs," Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, told journalists.

Simultaneously with the principal bill on introducing the digital ruble, amendments to the Civil Code have also been submitted to the Duma, which, in particular, qualify digital rubles as non-cash funds. The bill supplements the Civil Code with provisions on a digital account (wallet) and norms defining the essence of a new type of contract, i.e. a contract of a digital account (wallet), the procedure and specifics of its conclusion, and the procedure of settlements using digital rubles.

The amendments designate the Bank of Russia as the operator of a digital ruble platform and make it responsible for the safekeeping of digital rubles and for supervising the correct accounting of transactions with digital rubles.

The document makes a number of amendments to the law on banks and banking operations, including restrictions on conducting certain banking transactions with digital rubles and regarding banking secrecy about transactions with digital rubles.

The law On Enforcement Proceedings stipulates specifics of recovering digital rubles from a debtor's digital account (wallet).

If adopted, the new legislation should take effect on April 1, 2023.

The Russian Central Bank can determine a list of entities entitled to conduct transactions with digital rubles on a digital ruble platform and rules for conducting a pilot study of a digital ruble platform.