Russia’s largest lender, Sberbank, makes first digital asset transaction

Sberbank, the primary lender in Russia, on Tuesday issued a 1-billion rouble digital financial asset transaction with three-month maturity from its own platform to its subsidiary SberFactoring, according to a Reuters report. 

This is the first transaction on Sberbank’s platform. The Central Bank of Russia in the past has been a vocal sceptic of cryptocurrencies. The bank has long stated that the instability of the digital currencies is what has driven its constant unwillingness to engage with them in the long run. 

However, that changed when Russia invaded Ukraine and was subsequently removed the country from the SWIFT banking system. In February this year, the Bank awarded Atomyze Russia the first licence for exchanging digital assets, Sberbank was given theirs shortly after.

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The country’s second-largest lender, VTB and the fintech company Lighthouse ran their own transaction in late June. It was a cash-backed digital asset transaction. 

Sberbank told Reuters that all the digital assets it issues on its platform use blockchain technology and would be available to all their corporate clients shortly. Currently, only three financial institutions have licenses to conduct digital financial asset transactions: Sberbank, Atomyze and VTB. 

In the first week of July this year, the lower house of the Russian parliament passed a law that proposes exemptions on value added tax for companies and information system operators that issue digital assets. It is a part of the government’s larger push towards introducing cryptocurrency to its financial institutions as well as keeping a keen eye on it through regulation.

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The government’s financial monitoring agency, Rosfinmonitoring has taken an interest, and told Reuters that it was using software to track crypto transactions and was making an effort to develop capabilities in order to combat illicit activities. 

Since the war in Ukraine began and the crypto market became volatile after imploding, many countries have been worrying about how digital currencies could impact financial markets.