Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender, aims to begin offering digital ruble transactions to its customers in early 2025, according to a senior bank executive.

Russia‘s banking giant Sberbank plans to start operations with the country’s central bank digital currency — also known as the digital ruble — for its customers in early 2025, Sberbank’s deputy chief executive Anatoly Popov, told Reuters.

Sberbank is among Russian banks expected to join the project in the second round of testing CBDC, along with about 20 other financial institutions. Speaking on the factual usage, Popov said the bank plans to start “actual operations [with the digital ruble] with customers in early 2025.”

The Bank of Russia, which developed the digital ruble prototype in December 2021, began its testing phase in 2022. As of August 2023, clients and employees of 13 Russian banks had participated in pilot transactions. The central bank expanded the pilot in early September 2024 to include up to 9,000 individuals and 1,200 companies, up from around 600 individuals and 22 companies previously.

In late July, Russia’s central bank indicated that the digital ruble could be available for broader use by July 2025. The central bank reassured that the digital ruble will complement, rather than replace, existing cash and non-cash rubles. China, a key reference for Russia’s digital currency initiatives, has begun paying state salaries in Changshu with its own CBDC, the digital yuan, to boost the adoption of the state-controlled currency.