Russia’s Largest Bank Halts Crypto Plans Due to Central Bank’s Negative Stance

Russia's largest bank, the state-owned Sberbank, has suspended its crypto-related plans due to the central bank’s negative stance on the industry, local news agency TASS reports on May 30.

Sberbank vice president Andrey Shemetov has reportedly revealed the news at a recent press conference, claiming that Sberbank had been awaiting crypto legislation that would allow it to trade cryptocurrencies.

However, Shemetov stressed that the local financial regulator and the central bank, the Bank of Russia, is against the adoption of the crypto space at the moment. As such, the bank had to halt its plans relating to cryptocurrencies.

In the report, the official did not specify what particular project the bank had to suspend.

In January 2018, Sberbank’s subsidiary in Switzerland, Sberbank Switzerland AG, announced that it was planning to launch cryptocurrency exchange. At the time, Shemetov claimed that the bank had chosen Switzerland to establish the exchange because Russian authorities did not allow crypto operations.

Recently, Sberbank has requested a client to provide data on their income from cryptocurrency revenue.

Russian authorities have as of yet been unable to pass crypto legislation for a variety of reasons.

Most recently, TASS reported that Russia had to postpone the adoption of a crypto law due to a requirement from Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering to legislate major industry terms such as crypto and bitcoin (BTC), instead of using the sole term “digital assets.” In particular, Russian lawmakers were reportedly avoiding some terminology in the bill in accordance with a “certain position” of the Russia’s central bank.

However, the central bank has subsequently reacted to the report, claiming that the draft bill on crypto regulation is prepared enough to be adopted in the spring of 2019, in line with the order of the country’s president, Vladimir Putin.