The Bank of Russia has published a draft regulation under which companies will be able to make payments in digital rubles using registers — to simultaneously credit money to an unlimited number of recipients with a single transfer. This method can be used to pay salaries, settle with suppliers, and pay taxes for employees. Comments on the document are accepted until March 6.
Register payments eliminate the need to enter the details of each recipient separately, which reduces the risk of errors and simplifies the work of the accounting department. The service will be first tested by participants in the current digital ruble pilot. The regulatory act will come into force 60 days after publication.
The same document will add a new chapter to the digital ruble platform with a legal basis for cross-border payments in central bank digital currencies — this section comes into force 10 days after publication. The Central Bank has explicitly stated that such transfers must be processed in real time. The head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, previously identified cross-border payments, budget payments, and smart contracts as priority areas for the development of the digital ruble.
Several technical details of the project are worth highlighting. A register transfer can be executed partially: if there are not enough funds in the account for all recipients, the remaining positions will be suspended, while the balance is checked once for the entire register at once, and not for each line separately. In the event of a technical failure, the bank is obliged to immediately notify the Central Bank and notify customers via SMS or through the application.
A separate rule concerns the revocation of a banking license: if a bank participating in the platform loses its license, it is obliged to warn customers about the closure of access to their digital wallets.
The digital ruble is the third form of national currency, along with cash and non-cash money. Basic operations with it are currently only available to pilot participants: in September 2025, payment for parking was tested at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg. Mass implementation is scheduled for September 1, 2026: from this date, the largest banks and retail chains will be required to open digital wallets and conduct transactions. The use of the digital ruble will remain voluntary for citizens.
