Sberbank and Russia's National Settlement Depository are to run an Initial Coin Offering in the Bank of Russia’s regulatory sandbox. Level One, a company that manages Moscow’s biggest commercial lecture hall, will be the issuer.
The Bank of Russia test bed was launched in April 2018 to pilot and implement new financial services and technologies requiring legislative changes.
Under the pilot plans, Sberbank CIB will act as the issuance coordinator and anchor investor in tokens issued by Level One, and NSD will be the transaction’s custodian. NSD will keep and register digital assets.
The participants intend to fine-tune the technology in co-ordination with the Central Bank and ahead of the publication of two pending financial bills on digital asset trading and investment platforms.
Igor Bulantsev, head of Sberbank CIB, says: “Sberbank CIB considers the Russian ICO market to be very promising. Many Sberbank clients are interested in this type of investment, and we plan to promote this service proactively once the appropriate legislative framework comes into effect; we will be one of the drivers to institutionalize and popularize this type of transaction.”
Sberbank and NSD have been pushing hard into the digital investment marketplace. Earlier this month the bank issued the first Russian bonds on a blockchain platform developed by NSD.