A bill regulating the use of digital currencies in international payments may be adopted this fall

The Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank have agreed on a draft law regulating the use of cryptocurrencies in international transactions. Earlier, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank came to a unanimous opinion that in the current conditions, “it is impossible to do without cross-border settlements in cryptocurrency.”

“As you heard, the Central Bank also believes that cross-border settlements in cryptocurrencies are acceptable. Now we have a bill in this part that has already been agreed upon with the Central Bank in general. It generally describes how to acquire cryptocurrency, what can be done with it, and how it can or cannot be settled with it in the first place in cross-border settlements,” said Deputy Minister of Finance of Russia Alexei Moiseev during the discussion “Interaction of traditional banking with the crypto-active world” at the XIX International Banking Forum “RUSSIAN BANKS — XXI CENTURY.”

The document spells out how it will be possible to buy digital assets and how it is possible or impossible to pay for them. According to Moiseev, the authorities have not solved the problem of “entry and exit into fiat.”

Also, one of the key tasks to be solved is to determine the minimum infrastructure created for implementing such payments. At the same time, Kirill Pronin, head of the financial technology department of the Central Bank, said that the regulator is still confident that it is necessary to limit the circulation of cryptocurrencies in Russia.

According to him, the Central Bank is actively working on developing digital ruble projects and digital financial assets. Currently, 15 banks are testing a platform for working with a virtual national currency, and next year they will start testing operations based on a real digital ruble.

“The digital ruble will be put into circulation by analogy with cash: banks will receive digital rubles from the Bank of Russia in exchange for funds from their correspondent accounts. The process of introducing the digital ruble into circulation will be gradual and controlled,” the Bank of Russia said.