Receiving a pension in digital rubles is not a matter of the near future

Recently, the Central Bank announced the launch from April 1 in a test mode of settlements between individuals in digital rubles. And earlier, the head of the Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, said that citizens would be able to receive pensions in digital rubles. Rumors immediately spread on the Web that soon all pensions would be calculated digitally. How the digital ruble will actually be introduced into our everyday life and how to use it in everyday life, Moskovskaya Pravda learned from experts.

Let’s start with the fact that the experiment on making payments in digital rubles by individuals is still being postponed. As explained in the Bank of Russia, by April 1, the legal framework for this will not be ready.

“The Bank of Russia is ready to conduct pilot testing within the previously announced deadlines (in April). But since real people will participate in it and transactions will be carried out with real money, it is necessary to have a legal basis,” the Bank of Russia said in a statement.

Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, in turn, confirmed that the package of bills on the digital ruble had only passed the first reading and could only be adopted in mid-April – early May.

When the necessary laws are passed and come into force, the Central Bank will begin pilot testing, which will be attended by a limited number of clients of 13 banks.

“During this work, such basic operations as opening and closing a digital wallet on the Bank of Russia platform, its replenishment, transfers between citizens, payment for purchases and services using a QR code, and refunds will be tested. In the future, the list of these operations will be expanded,” the Bank of Russia noted.

That is, the mass introduction of the digital ruble will not begin soon. However, it is useful to understand what it is, how it differs from cryptocurrency and non-cash money, what are its advantages and how it can be used.

– The digital ruble is a separate type of means of payment that is not associated with cash, unlike non-cash rubles. It exists exclusively in digital form and is similar in technology to a cryptocurrency, with the only difference being that the Central Bank will deal with its release, while the “crypto” does not have a single issuer,” said Yaroslav Bajurak, commercial director of the Vyberu.ru financial marketplace. – The “chip” of the digital ruble is that each payment unit will be assigned an individual number and the Central Bank will be able to track all movements of the currency. This is convenient for the Central Bank, because it will be easier to manage the money supply, and for users, because fraudsters are less likely to encroach on such funds.

For an ordinary user, the difference between digital rubles and the usual non-cash currency will be almost imperceptible, says Maxim Fedorov, Investment Advisor at Fontvielle.

– The differences between these forms of money lie in the legal and technical planes. To make it clearer, I will give an example with a quick transfer system. The number of its users is steadily growing – for example, in 2022 a new record was set for the number of transactions: it exceeded 3 billion. The SBP is also a project of the Central Bank, to which commercial banks give access. Under it, a separate functionality is allocated in their applications, and the service itself is provided along with bank transfers – the client has the opportunity to choose a more convenient and profitable option. Approximately the same will happen with digital rubles, which are also controlled by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation,” the expert explained.

It is important to understand that the digital ruble, unlike cryptocurrencies, is an obligation of the Bank of Russia and must be backed by all its assets, notes Sergey Gataullin, Dean of the Faculty of Digital Economy and Mass Communications at MTUCI.

“The digital ruble differs from conventional non-cash money in that it is stored in a citizen’s electronic wallet on the account of the Bank of Russia, and not on the account of a commercial bank, therefore it is more secure,” the expert explained. – The receipt of digital rubles in an electronic wallet will occur in the same way as crediting to a bank account, and then you can either transfer these funds to a savings account of a commercial bank in order to receive interest income, withdraw in cash from a bank card, or spend through a fast payment system. That is, for digital ruble transfers, you can use the mobile application of your bank, and for cashing out, you can use a plastic card.

An additional advantage of using the digital ruble is the possibility of paying without connecting to the Internet, announced by the Bank of Russia. Meanwhile, electronic money can be used both for online transactions and for making international payments, which makes them attractive for legal entities and individuals who need to transfer money abroad, says Kirill Alekseev, an expert in digital business transformation.

– As for pensions, most likely, the algorithm will be as follows: in the mobile application of the bank where the pension comes, you will need to create a digital wallet, and pension accruals will come there in the digital ruble format. They can pay in stores, make transfers (for example, to relatives). You can also transfer a digital ruble to an electronic one (a kind of transfer between your accounts). The main difference is that the digital wallet is not tied to a bank. That is, if you change your current bank, the wallet will automatically go to the new bank along with you with all the funds stored in it,” the expert added.

Meanwhile, according to the head of the Digital Economy program at IMEB RUDN University, Candidate of Economic Sciences Sophia Glavina, Russians will not start receiving pensions in digital rubles soon.

“Today, most Russian pensioners do not even trust plastic cards or do not know how to use them, and it will be quite problematic to explain to them the technology of using an electronic wallet on a mobile phone,” the expert believes. – In addition, it is difficult to imagine what benefits pensioners will receive from this: remote calculation of pensions without visiting a bank office has been available through a pension card for several years.

In general, pensioners need not worry: in any case, even testing the system for using the digital ruble by individuals is being postponed, and its mass implementation is even more so. And, one way or another, no one is going to force them to switch to receiving a pension in digital rubles. Indeed, until now, some citizens receive a pension in the form of cash that the postman brings to them, and no one obliges them to get a bank card.

Alena Bodrienko.

Photo by Kirill Zykov / Moskva Agency