Russia’s central bank expects swift adoption of cryptocurrency bill

Russia’s monetary authority will permit banking operations with crypto assets but intends to impose strict limitations, a top representative of the regulator announced.

The high-ranking official made it clear the Bank of Russia maintains its conservative stance regarding decentralized digital currencies like Bitcoin, but also recognizes it isn’t very wise to keep Russian banks totally isolated from this market.

Bank of Russia to adopt strict rules for crypto banking

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has decided to allow banks to work with cryptocurrencies, but will introduce stringent capital limits and reserve requirements, its First Deputy Chairman Vladimir Chistyukhin unveiled during the Finopolis forum.

“We are conservatives. We are considering whether, for example, taking crypto onto their balance sheets is actually banking business,” Chistyukhin admitted, quoted by the Interfax news agency. But he also conceded:

Chistyukhin quickly emphasized, however, that the monetary authority plans to impose “fairly strict requirements” in an effort “to prevent this from becoming a de facto dominant activity” of banking institutions.

Among financial regulators in Moscow, the CBR has been the most reluctant to legalize the free circulation of cryptocurrencies in the Russian economy.

Nevertheless, under the pressure of Western sanctions, the central bank backed this year the establishment of an “experimental legal regime” for crypto transactions.

The latter allows Russian companies to use coins in international settlements and provides a limited group of “highly qualified” investors access to the digital assets. In May, financial firms were authorized to offer crypto derivatives to the same category of corporate entities and individual investors.

To be accepted as such, private citizens must have at least 100 million rubles in bank deposits and securities and be able to prove an annual income of more than 50 million rubles from the past year ($1.2 million and $600,000, respectively).

These criteria are not final and the central bank is still working to finalize them together with the finance ministry. Meanwhile, the CBR published a separate set of draft standards for banking institutions, including a proposal to limit crypto exposure to 1% of their capital.

Russia’s central bank expects swift adoption of cryptocurrency bill

The Bank of Russia hopes to have a law comprehensively regulating crypto investments passed next year, Vladimir Chistyukhin also noted. Quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency during the fintech event, he elaborated:

This would allow authorities to implement a licensing mechanism, and the banker believes the first licensed service providers can enter the market by the end of that year.

Chistyukhin admitted it’s going to take a while to clarify the status of entities already conducting cryptocurrency transactions, but that will be necessary in order to amend other laws, particularly in the law enforcement field, which should take effect in 2027.

The CBR official is convinced this approach would allow Russia to preserve the innovative nature of the new type of crypto instruments and implement those that are already becoming mainstream.

He also commented that there have been sufficient preliminary discussions, and it’s now time for a consensus on the matter so that development in this space can continue.

Chistyukhin’s call for swift approval of proper crypto legislation was supported by his superior, CBR Governor Elvira Nabiullina, who was quoted by TASS as stating that the Bank of Russia expects the cryptocurrency bill to be submitted to the State Duma “soon.”

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