Sberbank to Conduct First Digital Asset Transaction on Own Platform

Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, is going to carry out the first transfer of digital assets on its own dedicated platform within a month, a top executive revealed this week. The announcement comes after earlier this year, the bank was authorized to issue digital financial assets.

Sberbank Prepares for Deal With Digital Financial Assets on Proprietary Platform

Russian majority state-owned bank Sberbank (Sber) will perform the first transaction with digital financial assets (DFAs) on a platform developed by the institution within a month, Tass reported. The news agency quoted Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of the Management Board of the banking and financial services company.

Speaking on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the high-ranking executive reminded that Sberbank, which accounts for about a third of all bank assets in Russia, was added to the Central Bank of Russia’s register of information system operators permitted to issue DFAs this spring.

‘Digital financial assets’ is the current term in Russian law describing cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. Additional legislation is on the way, with a bill “On Digital Currency,” proposed by the Ministry of Finance to comprehensively regulate the country’s crypto market, likely to be adopted during the fall session of the State Dima, the lower house of parliament.

“We are watching the development of new technologies, including in the field of distributed ledgers. We are studying how blockchain technologies are developing,” Popov commented. “Currently, there are many projects using them, and in Sber, of course, too.”

Sberbank’s deputy chairman also noted that the bank’s digital asset platform has already passed acceptance tests. A press release published in March detailed that DFAs will be issued and circulated through the platform which has been built with blockchain technologies.

Other companies will be allowed to use it to issue their own digital assets to attract investments. They will also be able to make transactions with DFAs under applicable regulations in the Russian Federation.

For now, the law “On Digital Financial Assets,” which went into force in January of 2021, is the main piece of legislation regulating cryptocurrencies and tokens in Russia. While it introduced rules to govern activities such as the issuance of digital coins and fundraising through tokens, key operations with cryptocurrencies like mining and trading are yet to be regulated.