Russia’s largest bank performs first blockchain digital asset transaction

Sberbank has completed the first transaction using a digital financial asset on its own blockchain-based platform.

Sberbank, the biggest bank in Russia that is majority-owned by the government has completed the first transaction involving a digital financial asset on its own blockchain-based platform.

Sberbank said today that it has deployed the smart contract-based blockchain platform and executed the first transaction with its subsidiary SberFactoring, issuing a 1 billion rouble (about $15 million) note with a three-month maturity.

Anatoly Popov, vice chairman of the board of Sberbank, said in the release, “The launch of the platform and our achieving operator status are the outcomes of the effort of several departments of our bank in close coordination with the Bank of Russia.”

Popov continued by stating that the research undertaken by the Sberbank blockchain laboratory, which was established in 2018, is now being transformed into industrial business solutions. “We feel our platform has strong possibilities since the digital format speeds up, simplifies, and reduces the market entry hurdle,” he added.

The blockchain platform of Sberbank is now in pilot mode for a restricted number of users, but all of the bank’s business customers will soon be able to connect to it.

The bank intends to publish other sorts of financial assets on its platform in the future. In conjunction with the fintech startup Lighthouse, the unit of Russia’s second-largest bank, VTB Factoring, performed its first cash-backed digital financial asset transaction last month.

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