A subsidiary of Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, has joined a blockchain-based platform for commodity trade finance. Sberbank Switzerland AG has signed an agreement with Swiss trade finance platform Komgo to apply its blockchain-powered trade finance service. Representatives from Sberbank Switzerland told Cointelegraph that the collaboration with Komgo addresses the growing digitization of trade finance. Evgeny Kravchenko, head of trade finance at Sberbank, outlined that commodity trade finance is a strategic business of Sberbank Switzerland. According to the executive, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States countries are the company’s key markets, while Sberbank Switzerland also supports trade flows globally. “In …
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 …
Russia’s central bank, the Bank of Russia, will consider issuing a gold-backed cryptocurrency, Russian news agency TASS reports May 23. Elvira Nabiullina, the head of the Bank of Russia, revealed that the bank may be interested in creating a gold-pegged crypto for conducting mutual settlements with global jurisdictions. However, Nabiullina claimed that she believes that it is more important to develop international settlements using national currencies. Speaking at a meeting of the State Duma, the bank’s governor cited a successful example of using national currencies in settlements under the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), noting that the development …
Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has officially launched its first branch in Russia on Thursday, Dec. 6, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph today. The Moscow-based exchange, dubbed Huobi Russia, is established in partnership with the state-owned Russian Development Bank’s (VEB) Digital Transformation Center and supported by Huobi’s regional exchange partnership program, Huobi Cloud. The Center of Digital Transformation was created by VEB to promote blockchain and other crypto-related technologies, as its website states. Back in September of this year, Huobi first joined Russia’s VEB Innovation Fund and became a resident of the Digital Transformation Center to share experience …
The Union Cabinet of India has approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the collaborative research of distributed ledger technology (DLT), local news outlet ANI reported September 12. The Union Cabinet is the supreme decision-making body in India consisting of cabinet ministers and led by the prime minister, Narendra Modi. The MOU, which is a cooperative initiative under the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism, aims to foster better understanding of DLT and define areas where the technology can be deployed to improve operational efficiency. The research will be jointly conducted by the Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) and banks from …