Central bank approves plan to launch digital currency

February 6, Pozirk. The board of the National Bank of Belarus (NBB) has approved a sketch of a plan to launch the digital rubel.

The digital currency is designed to expand national and cross-border payment tools.

The digital rubel will ensure a “high level” of safety of the population’s monetary assets, the bank said. It will help avoid reliance on a single bank and expand services available in remote and sparsely populated areas by offering offline payment options, it added.

It will make it easier for businesses and financial institutions to enter the market, expand business opportunities, reduce the need for intraday liquidity and lower the cost of cross-border payments.

The government will have more opportunities to integrate the national payment system with partners and reduce the cost of budget administration, the bank said.

The digital currency platform is expected to run on distributed ledger technology.