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As of October 31, 2021, 372 KOs (including 337 banks) operated in Russia, including 13 SZKOs, whose share in the assets of the banking sector, including their subsidiary KOs (another 18 KOs), is more than 75%. The share of other large CRs from the top 100 is about 20% of the sector's assets, including 5.3% - large NPOs (including the National Clearing Center). In October 2021, the license was revoked from one small CR with a share in the sector's assets less than 0.1%.
8.1.7 Banks specific issues
Banks are lobbying the Duma and Central Bank to exempt credit cards from collective limits on the issuance of unsecured debt per existing regulations, but neither support the move for now. The current legal framework is expected to pass into law by December 1. It's not surprising banks want to lift regulations as much as possible – they're tasked with being profitable in an economy whose consumption isn't growing very much and is increasingly financed by borrowing.
The Central Bank of Russia only began in earnest to plan the introduction of a digital currency last year, but the basic design of the digital ruble was already set forth in a plan released by the CBR last April.
The digital ruble, which will be issued by the central bank, will serve the same function as cash, but will require households to access their digital rubles using applications provided by commercial banks.
Using their bank-issued app, customers would be able to make digital ruble transactions even offline. It is important to note that the customer’s digital rubles in the proposed system are not liabilities of the commercial banks but the CBR.
When the customer wants to transfer assets from her bank account to her digital wallet, the bank transfers the desired amount from the account to the wallet. The commercial bank then reports the transaction to the central bank, which then shifts on the liabilities side of its balance sheet the desired amount of digital rubles from the commercial bank’s digital wallet to the private customer’s wallet.
The total amount of digital rubles remains unchanged. Payments with digital rubles could also be transferred via commercial-bank app, and the CBR would then transfer digital rubles between customer digital wallets.
In summer 2021, the CBR launched pilot testing of the digital ruble with twelve commercial banks. The pilot tests should establish that commercial bank apps integrate seamlessly and securely with the central bank’s systems in transferring digital rubles between wallets. If successful, the pilot programme would be extended in January 2022 to other banks. No date has been set for the official introduction of digital rubles in regular use.
Russian management companies are beginning to create specialized
91 RUSSIA Country Report December 2021 www.intellinews.com