Package of bills on digital ruble could be adopted in April - head of State Duma committee

MOSCOW. March 23 (Interfax) - A package of bills on the digital ruble could be adopted in April and begin to operate in May, after which the development of the digital financial assets market (DFA) in Russia will get a new impetus, the head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Market Anatoly Aksakov said at the "Russian Financial Market Forum" organized by ACRA.

"I think that after the adoption of the law on the digital ruble - it has now been adopted in the first reading and is being prepared for the second reading - I am sure that we will adopt it in April and, accordingly, in May it will take effect," Aksakov said.

Once the digital ruble enters our lives, DFA will get additional impetus for more active issues, he said.

"Plus, the collapse of the global financial system will stimulate interest and movement in this direction from issuers, investors, and the regulator, so I expect a serious boom in digital topics in the second half of this year, including in your [financial] market," Aksakov said.

Shortly before, the Central Bank said that it had postponed the pilot digital ruble launch, which was scheduled for April 1, because the regulatory framework has not yet been adopted. "The pilot with real digital rubles will start as soon as the legislative and regulatory framework is adopted," the regulator said in a statement.

A limited number of clients from 13 banks were expected to take part in the pilot. The pilot participants were supposed to test the opening and closing of a digital wallet on the Central Bank platform, its replenishment, transfers between citizens, payment for purchases and services using a QR-code and refunds.

On March 16, the State Duma passed in the first reading a package of bills on the implementation of the digital ruble, with the deadline for the adoption of amendments to the second reading coming on April 14. However, the package of bills on the digital ruble, approved the day before by the State Duma, was not included in the work plan for April. It was reported earlier that the government had sent to the parliament a number of proposals to finalize the text of the bill, including the exclusion of the norm that operations with personal data within the framework of the Central Bank's digital ruble platform should not be under the control of Roskomnadzor. The government also proposed clarification of a number of powers of the Central Bank.