According to a report from Russian business magazine Vedomosti, Rosbank has become the first major bank in Russia to offer cross-border payment services in cryptocurrency. Despite facing a nationwide ban, the bank is committed to strictly following applicable legal requirements, guidance from the Central Bank and its own compliance policy.
Rosbank will partner with a Russian fintech service, B-Crypto, to provide a technical solution for customers engaged in cross-border digital currency transactions. This shows that the bank is making efforts to find ways to adapt to the development of cryptocurrency technology and provide corresponding services based on regulations and guidance of financial regulators.
According to information from Russian business magazine Vedomosti, Rosbank, a major bank in Russia, has launched a payment service for imported goods and services in cryptocurrency. However, this payment process is still very complex and subject to strict restrictions.
The published procedure states that Russian companies can choose to pay for imported goods and services with cryptocurrencies after reaching an agreement with the supplier and determining the crypto wallet they will use. used for payment. The buying company will then receive an invoice containing the amount due to be paid in cryptocurrency and the receiving wallet address.
After the contract is signed, the buying company will deposit the outstanding amount in cash into its Rosbank account. Rosbank will then transfer the funds to a third-party partner organization, B-Crypto. B-Crypto will use this money to buy desired cryptocurrencies from countries that have “friendly” relations with crypto, and ultimately forward it to the supplier.
Rosbank’s decision is considered bold, because at the moment the Russian authorities have a negative stance on cryptocurrencies and do not support its use as a means of payment for goods and services, and this has been banned in Russia since July 2022.
The Bank of Russia has also banned the use of cryptocurrencies in the national economy and only allows their use outside of Russian infrastructure or in cross-border operations. At the same time, the current legislation in Russia does not yet provide a legal basis for cryptocurrency transactions. Russia’s Digital Financial Assets (DFA) law prohibits even Russian private residents from using cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services.
This puts Rosbank’s actions in contrast to most other major banks in Russia, as the top 50 banks have not confirmed to offer similar services. Even a vice-president of the Russian Bankers Association admitted that he had never seen any examples of such implementation among large banks.
However, a managing partner of GMT Legal, a leading law firm in Russia, said that B-Crypto’s crypto operations are fully compliant with legal regulations. He emphasized that the DFA law only applies to transactions conducted through the Russian information infrastructure.
Currently, the bill on digital financial assets (DFA) is under consideration in the lower house of the Russian parliament, and the amendments could allow testing of cryptocurrency transactions in a regulatory regime.