Rosbank, one in every of Russia’s greatest banks, has spent round $1.6 million on digital ruble integration – even though the CBDC pilot is lower than two months outdated.
The financial institution is one in every of Russia’s most bullish with regards to CBDC and crypto adoption.
Prior to the August launch of the digital ruble pilot, Rosbank stated that it was “ready to participate in a pilot project with real clients.”
Rosbank additionally launched a world crypto pay pilot in June, permitting Russian companies to commerce utilizing cryptoassets through a crypto exchange-powered platform.
Per Vedomosti, Olga Makhova, the Director of Change, Innovation, and Data Management at Rosbank, stated that a lot of the cash had been spent on “information security.”
She additionally stated cash had been spent on “building a gateway between the bank and the Central Bank’s [platform].”
Makhova stated that Central Bank options imply there was no want was “no need” for Rosbank to spend on “deployed blockchain technologies.”
But she added that the financial institution had been compelled to spend cash on “deploying complex cryptography solutions.”
CBDC Integration: A Priority for Russian Banks?
Russian banks are considered spending cash on interoperability options that may allow them to course of transactions involving abroad CBDCs.
The Central Bank itself has claimed that this sort of performance could possibly be in place by 2025.
And the Rosbank govt claimed the corporate had begun investing in CBDC know-how in 2021.
She stated that the necessity to guarantee all digital ruble transactions carry an digital digital signature had required forward-thinking on the financial institution’s half.
Makhova stated:
“The [integration of the digital ruble] is a very difficult [project] from an organizational point of view. It requires serious restructuring both for our systems and our mobile apps.”
Makhova concluded that Rosbank had spent “important cash on recruiting “extremely specialised specialists who perceive [blockchain and CBDC] know-how.
Rosbank is a part of an preliminary group of 13 home banks working on the pilot.
The pilot is being carried out in 11 cities nationwide, with 600 residents making use of the token.
The Central Bank has stated {that a} group of 16 different banks is ready to hitch the pilot in 2024, though the identification of those companies has not but been revealed.
