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Tim Alper
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Tim Alper
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Sberbank wants the Russian Central Bank to push its digital ruble rollout back to 2026, with the banking giant calling for a more “realistic” CBDC launch date.
The Central Bank has previously announced its intention to launch its digital fiat before the end of 2025, in spite of prior commercial bank warnings.
Sberbank: Delay CBDC Rollout to 2026 or Beyond
The Russian media outlet RBC reported that Sberbank thinks the nation’s “financial institutions” need “more time to prepare for the CBDC’s launch.”
The outlet quoted a Sberbank spokesperson as claiming that the digital ruble rollout will “mean additional expenses for banks and stores.”
Commercial banks will need to spend “tens of billions of rubles” (RUB 1 = $0.0095) on adoption costs.
Financial firms will also need new IT solutions compatible with the Central Bank’s coin.
“The [Central Bank] is still developing and testing the digital ruble. As such, many banks believe it would be more realistic to postpone its launch to a later date – after 2026. The digital ruble platform is still under development. The Central Bank is still constantly making fundamental changes to it.”
Sberbank spokesperson
2025 Rollout in Doubt?
The Central Bank has insisted its coin will roll out before the end of 2025, as it looks to completely redevelop the Russian payment ecosystem before the end of the decade.
The Russian Central Bank hopes the government’s recent crypto pivot is a mere stopgap solution to help Moscow fight US, EU, and UK-led sanctions.
As part of wider de-dollarization efforts and BRICS integration strategies, the Central Bank has fast-tracked a number of projects, including the Mir payment system, the Faster Payments System (SBP), and the digital ruble.
Some experts think that the Russian CBDC may achieve nationwide rollout before even Beijing’s digital yuan.
But Sberbank, Russia’s biggest commercial bank, appears to have had reservations about the digital ruble from the outset.
The bank did not join the first stage of the digital ruble pilot in mid-2023 and only began its own CBDC operations in the second half of last year.
The same Sberbank spokesperson added that “many small banks” have asked the Central Bank to provide them with ready-made CBDC integration solutions.
State Duma Readies Legislation
The Central Bank also needs lawmakers to heed its requests if it is to succeed with its 2025 rollout bid.
The head of the State Duma’s Committee on the Financial Markets Anatoly Aksakov has claimed a bill “may be adopted in the first quarter of 2025” to “immediately launch the process.”
A recently published Central Bank document calls on all “systemically important credit institutions” to “provide digital ruble transactions for their clients by July 1, 2025.”
This group of 13 institutions consists of banking giants like Sberbank, VTB, Alfa-Bank, T-Bank (formerly Tinkoff Bank), Gazprombank, Otkritie, and Raiffeisenbank.
Medium-sized banks will be given an extra year to complete their adoption processes under the proposals.
The Central Bank will give smaller financial providers until July 1, 2027, to fall in line.
The bank wants to use the same deadline model for retailers, with larger firms obliged to start accepting the coin from July 1, 2025, and smaller vendors given until 2027 to comply.
However, some Russian banks appear to be (at least outwardly) optimistic about the digital ruble launch.
A spokesperson for VTB said the bank “will be technologically ready to introduce the digital ruble in the first quarter of 2025.”
Promsvyazbank, Sovcombank, and Rosselkhozbank also confirmed a readiness to adhere to “the timeframes specified by the Central Bank.”
Expert: CBDC Rollout Delay Is Reasonable
The same media outlet quoted Anastasia Kalugina, the Director of the Digital Finance Group at the auditor Kept, as stating that several factors “could complicate” the Central Bank’s plan.
She opined that “not all banks are ready for the CBDC’s technical integration” and concurred that this step would “require significant IT investment.”
Kalugina said there was also work to do on the regulatory side to ensure adequate data protection and combat money laundering.
She also said there was a need to “shape public opinion so that users understand and trust the digital ruble.”
Kalugina said that “postponing the deadlines by one or two years” seems “reasonable, provided that the above-described risk factors are actively addressed.”
“This would allow all market participants to better prepare, test systems, and eliminate potential problems. Ultimately, it is important that the launch of the digital ruble is not only timely, but also high-quality.”
Anastasia Kalugina, Director of Digital Finance Group, Kept
