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The digital ruble is expected to bring Russia’s economy some $3 billion or more annually in the first five years of its introduction, according to a new estimate presented in Moscow. While banks are set to initially lose billions of rubles due to the digital cash, businesses will benefit right off the bat, claim Russian analysts trying to predict the effects of the new form of national fiat. Russian digital currency to benefit businesses, hurt banks Bank of Russia’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) will generate up to 260 billion rubles (almost $3.3 billion) a year for the country’s economy by 2031, according to a forecast produced by the Moscow-based National Rating Agency (NRA). Its analysis indicates that in the first few years of scaling up the digital ruble, the economic effect for Russian companies will be 30 to 50 billion rubles annually (over $600 million), while the same for banks will be in the range 5-8 billion rubles (under $100 million). In the beginning, bank revenues may suffer in the absence of cashback and amid an outflow of customers to new service providers, the authors of the study noted in a report seen by Russia’s official TASS news agency. In a pessimistic scenario, the banking system as a whole may lose 45-95 billion rubles (nearly $1.2 billion) in terms of unpaid fees, starting from 2027. That amounts to around 8-10% of the total net profits of Russian banks. From 2029, the effect of the introduction of the digital ruble will be more evenly distributed across various segments of the economy, according to the document, quoted on Monday. Costs for the CBDC’s tech integration are estimated at an average of 200-300 million rubles per bank, and total investments that the banking sector needs to make are 30-50 billion rubles (approx.…

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Filed under: News - @ August 18, 2025 4:23 pm