Settlement in digital units may become part of the BRICS investment platform

Settlements in digital units may be part of the planned BRICS investment platform. Russian President Vladimir Putin said this on December 4 at the plenary session of the VTB forum "Russia Calling!".

Putin, citing expert assessments, said that one of the main long-term factors of global growth will be the use of national digital infrastructure in the financial sector.

According to the Russian leader, the Bank of Russia is gradually introducing the digital ruble: for example, a pilot project for depositing funds and transferring digital rubles between individuals and legal entities has already been worked out. Participants of the project are 9 thousand citizens and 1200 companies, and their number is growing, according to the President of the Russian Federation.

Putin reminded that from the next year settlements with the digital ruble will be applied in the system of the federal budget, and from July 1, such an opportunity will be available nationwide.

"Russia's leading positions in financial technologies allow us to build flexible relations with foreign partners, promote integration projects, benefit from the conjugation of economic potentials of our countries. In particular, I mean the work on the investment platform, which we are doing now with our BRICS colleagues, we are starting this work, anyway," summarized the Russian leader.

On November 25, Capital Lab partner Evgeny Shatov listed the advantages of the digital ruble. Thus, the wallet can be accessed through any bank where the client is served. Online transactions can be made similarly to cashless settlements.

Before that, on October 17, the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank (CB) of Russia Olga Skorobogatova has told that the payment for goods and services with the digital ruble will be testedon the basis of a universal QR code. She explained that the decision to equally accept payments in digital rubles, through the system of fast payments (FPS) and banks' own services was made in order to avoid extra costs on the part of enterprises and credit organizations.

Earlier, in July this year, Putin said that Russia needs to move to a wider implementation of the digital ruble in various spheres. According to his assessment, the digital ruble platform has now demonstrated its performance and functionality as part of a "pilot".