Rosbank Invests $1.6M in Digital Ruble Integration

Rosbank, one of the largest banks in Russia, has invested approximately $1.6 million in digital ruble integration despite the CBDC pilot being less than two months old.

The bank is among the most optimistic in Russia regarding CBDC and crypto adoption.

Before the launch of the digital ruble pilot in August, Rosbank stated that it was “ready to partake in a pilot project with real clients.”

Rosbank also launched an international crypto pay pilot in June, enabling Russian companies to trade crypto assets on a platform powered by a crypto exchange.

According to Vedomosti, Olga Makhova, the Director of Change, Innovation, and Data Management at Rosbank, stated that “information security” consumed most of the budget.

She also stated that funds were allocated to “create a gateway between the bank and the Central Bank’s platform.”

Makhova stated that the solutions provided by the Central Bank negated the need for Rosbank to invest in “deployed blockchain technologies.”

She added, however, that the bank had to spend money on “deploying intricate cryptography solutions.” It is believed that Russian institutions are investing in interoperability solutions that will allow them to process transactions involving foreign CBDCs.

This functionality, according to the Central Bank, could be implemented by 2025.

In addition, according to the Rosbank executive, the company began investing in CBDC technology in 2021.

She stated that the bank’s foresight was required to ensure that all digital ruble transactions contain an electronic digital signature.

Makhova said:

“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 a substantial amount of money to employ “highly specialized experts familiar with [blockchain and CBDC] technology.

Rosbank is among the initial set of thirteen domestic banks collaborating on the pilot.

The pilot is being conducted in eleven cities nationwide, with 600 citizens using the token.

The Central Bank has announced that 16 additional banks will join the pilot program in 2024, although the identities of these institutions have not yet been disclosed.