Alfa-Bank, one of the leading Russian banking institutions, has established its own platform for digital financial assets. The launch was made possible after Russia’s monetary authority added Alfa-Bank to its register of digital asset issuers this week.
Privately Owned Alfa-Bank Establishes Digital Assets Platform With Permission From Central Bank
Russia’s Alfa-Bank has launched ‘A-Token’, a platform that enables the issuance of digital financial assets (DFA), business news portal RBC reported, citing its Director of Innovation Denis Dodon. The bank was able to do so after the Bank of Russia Announced its registration as a DFA issuer on Thursday.
The authorization makes Alfa-Bank, which is the largest private bank in the country, the second largest banking institution that can mint digital currencies, after the state-owned Sberbank, which is the largest bank in the Russian Federation in asset terms.
The list of licensees also includes the fintech company Lighthouse, which cooperates with VTB bank, and the tokenization service Atomyze, which works in partnership with Rosbank. They have already issued several digital assets. Sberbank is also preparing to launch a defi platform.
Alfa-Bank plans to issue its own DFAs on the new platform, with a pilot launch scheduled for the end of February. You also want to provide your infrastructure to other market participants. The bank expects to work with both investment firms and private investors and A-Token will be accessible through its mobile app.
Dodon further explained that the platform will issue two types of financial instruments: DFA equivalents to traditional financial instruments in the form of monetary rights, and entirely new investment instruments, including tokenized physical assets such as precious metals.
Alfa-Bank announced its intentions to create an infrastructure for DFA in September 2022. Its issuance in Russia is regulated by the law “On Digital Financial Assets” which came into force in January 2021. While this legislation is mainly dedicated to assets digitals that have an issuer, the Russian authorities have also been developing a legal framework for decentralized cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
Crypto payments have been seen in Moscow as a way to circumvent Western financial restrictions imposed during the war in Ukraine and a digital ruble is also being created. Both Alfa-Bank and Sberbank have been placed under sanctions by the US Treasury Department and Russia’s access to crypto assets has been targeted by the European Union.
Do you expect other Russian banks to launch digital asset platforms in the future? Tell us in the comment section below.
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