Blockchain in the Central Bank of Russia

• About technology: Blockchain
• On development in Russia: Blockchain in Russia
• About IT systems in the Central Bank: Information technologies in the Central Bank of the Russian Federation

2020: Central Bank completes piloting of blockchain platform for issue and circulation of digital rights

The Bank of Russia conducted a regulatory sandbox piloting a service for the release and circulation of digital rights developed by Norilsk Nickel and approved it. The service is a platform for hybrid rights and allows you to tokenize various kinds of goods and services, including metals. This was announced on February 17, 2020 by Norilsk Nickel. Read more here.

2018:3 lessons the Central Bank took from its first blockchain experiments

Olga Skorobogatova, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in May 2018, told what three lessons were given following the results of the first piloting and tests in the field of distributed register technology. Among them are projects based on the masterman, which are being conducted by the Fintech association, created with the participation of the Central Bank, together with participants in the financial market - a number of large banks.

The first lesson provided by the Central Bank is the need to resolve the issue of regulatory regulation of the application of blockchain as soon as possible. At the same time, according to the Central Bank, it should not be too tough and detailed. This cannot be done at the current stage of development, Skorobogatova believes.

Blockchain regulation should be soft, Olga Skorobogatova believes

Why did many countries at first not regulate this area at all, and now they are moving to "soft" regulation, mainly introducing concepts and definitions? To launch new technologies and new projects, first of all, to decide from the point of view of concepts: what is it, what are the rights and obligations, how the consumer and the investor will be protected, she says.

According to Olga Skorobogatova, the first laws in which there is a blockchain and related concepts that the Central Bank has prepared have already passed the first reading in the State Duma. These are laws on digital assets, on crowdfunding, where there are also concepts of distributed registry technology, smart contracts, etc., and which imply the introduction of concepts into legal regulatory documents in Russia, including the Civil Code.

This is done in order to introduce the opportunity to use new technologies in the legal field, explained Skorobogatova.

The second thing that the Central Bank found out for itself as part of the pilots is that the technology of distributed registers involves changing the entire process to which market players are accustomed. And this turned out to be the most difficult, says the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank. According to her, market participants participating in the pilot and demonstrating enthusiasm at the initial stage ultimately faced questions about how much it would cost them to change certain processes, what difficulties the changes will be associated with and, ultimately, why they need it.

Only by convincing participants with specific figures for further savings and effects can such projects be carried out, says Skorobogatova. By May 2018, large pilot banks had already spent about six months radically changing their processes, taking into account the transition to the use of new technology.

The third lesson that the Central Bank learned is not to be in the illusion that blockchain is a little customized, and it will solve most of the issues. Distributed registries are perfectly embedded and can be one of the technologies in hybrid platforms and solutions.

There are such examples in the world, and the Central Bank thought about what can be used, for example, blockchain for smart contracts, for a trusted environment, but at the same time make integration with the online system, which makes payments, because while it is more reliable, more practical and understandable.

That is, various options are possible here: distributed registers, and distributed registers as part of hybrid technology, as well as some element from distributed registers, - added Olga Skorobogatova.

Masterchain-based pilots, which the Fintech association is working on with banks, include reducing the cost and speeding up the securitization process and improving the reliability of storing mortgages using a decentralized depository accounting system. With the help of a masterchain, there are also plans to try to reduce the risk of fraud when remotely identifying customers.

Another project is work to reduce the cost of issuing digital guarantees, increase their protection and simplify verification for third parties by creating a distributed register of digital bank guarantees. The fourth project is the issuance of digital letters of credit.

According to Olga Skorobogatova, in the 3rd quarter of 2018 it is planned to pilot a MasterChain on real data with banks on digital letters of credit, mortgage and bank guarantees. Skorobogatova drew attention to the fact that these pilots are made on operations involving recordings and the ability to see the movement of transactions and transactions in one field.

2017: Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Olga Skorobogatova on the prospects for blockchain and the transition to virtual national currency

According to Skorobogatova, Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, it will take 7-10 years until the blockchain is fully industrially applied to serious projects in the financial sector and in other sectors. She voiced this forecast, speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in May 2017.

Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Olga Skorobogatova believes that the industrial use of blockchain technology will begin in 7-10 years

Until that time, banks will invest in the development of blockchain and conduct more and more pilot projects, she said.

The representative of the Central Bank noted that now at the level of the financial sector and government agencies, a lot of time is spent on discussions, coordination of actions, subtle legal issues, but due to the fact that a lot is being done now, including many pilot projects together with market participants, the result will be seen quite quickly.

Both in Russia and abroad, the introduction of blockchain is still mainly at the level of experiments and pilot projects. At the same time, according to the representative of the Central Bank, Russian banks tend to be more optimistic about the timing of the mass distribution of this technology at home than foreign colleagues.

Earlier at the PMEF-2017, the chairman of the board of Sberbank, German Gref, predicted that the mass use of blockchain can be expected no earlier than in 1.5-2 years, and in order to "finally mature," blockchain technologies need another 8-10 years.

Skorobogatova said that the Central Bank, within the framework of the FinTech Association, plans to do in the field of blockchain in 2017-2019. (the association was created in December 2016 together with the largest banks with the participation of the Central Bank).

According to her, five projects were identified, where the Central Bank sees the prospect of piloting the technology of distributed registers. One of them is testing, together with banks, a prototype distributed registry that allows you to exchange financial messages.

The second project is a digital letter of credit (an account on which you can reserve money when conducting transactions for the sale of goods or the provision of services). The main participant in this project is VEB, with which, within the framework of the SPIEF, the association signed an agreement on cooperation in this area. It is planned that the digital letter of credit will be used to organize trade between Russia and Belarus.

The other three projects are depository accounting of electronic invoices, information exchange for KYC (KYC - know your customer, know your client) and digital bank guarantees.

These pilot projects mean a serious work of market participants, and not just the Central Bank, says They are needed to understand and put forward proposals for launching projects into industrial use with a roadmap for implementation, the representative of the Central Bank explained.

Olga Skorobogatova added that Russia will reach the virtual national currency. The pilot projects being implemented will play a role in this.

With the pilots we are doing, we will have a better understanding of which system we could use in the future for our national currency, "she said. - We will definitely reach the virtual national currency, and we have already begun to work on this.

2016

Central Bank is looking for a contractor to develop the Russian version of blockchain

In December 2016, the Central Bank of Russia announced a tender for software development using distributed register technology. The Masterchain software package (PC) is planned to be used to exchange and store information about transactions. Read more in a separate article.

Central Bank and Russian banks tested the blockchain project

October 5 Bank of Russia , 2016 announced the development and testing of message transmission technology. MasterChain The banking regulator spoke about this tool of interaction between financial market participants on its website. More. here

Central Bank intends to solve the problem of off-balance sheet depositors using blockchain technology

The Bank of Russia intends to use blockchain technology to solve the problem of off-balance sheet depositors, when people, after revoking a license from a credit institution, do not find themselves in the register. A source close to the regulator^[1] the^[2] the media^[3] this].

The Central Bank working group is discussing the use of blockchain to form a register of depositors. Data from the blockchain cannot be deleted, making the system as transparent as possible.

"When revoking a license from a bank or other insurance case, citizens who are not in the register of depositors, but who apply to the DIA for compensation," a representative of a large Russian bank explained to Izvestia. "These are really affected depositors, whom the bank withdrew from the balance sheet in order to reduce the amount of contributions to the deposit insurance fund."

According to a bank representative from the top 10, storing the register of depositors in the blockchain will also reduce the number of fraudulent actions.

In addition to the actually affected citizens, pseudo-balance sheet depositors apply for insurance compensation according to false documents, the banker explained.

According to the interlocutor, when checking, it turns out that these people were not initially among the current clients of banks, and there is no special corpus delicti for pseudo-balance sheet depositors in the Criminal Code.

"At the moment, we are at the very beginning of the journey, studying various possibilities for a systematic solution to the problem associated with depositors, information about which for one reason or another is not in the register," the press service of the Central Bank commented.

Notes