
Seven Russian banks will join digital ruble testing in the coming months
According to the head of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina, in the coming months, in addition to 5 banks testing digital ruble payments from January 2022, seven more banks will join.
The Central Bank of Russia, together with other banks, is testing the issuance of digital rubles, the opening of digital wallets for citizens, as well as transfers between them.
Earlier, the Central Bank reported that the testing group included 12 banks, namely Sberbank, VTB Bank, Gazprombank, Alfa-Bank, DOM.RF Bank, Rosbank, Promsvyazbank, Tinkoff Bank, SKB-Bank, Ak Bars Bank, Transcapitalbank and Bank Soyuz.
Putin, Saudi Crown Prince Vow to Continue OPEC+ Cooperation
Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed this weekend their countries’ cooperation in the OPEC+ oil production pact in their second telephone call since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia is a key partner to OPEC’s largest producer and de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, in the OPEC+ alliance, which has been working for years to manage oil supply to the market. And it looks like Russia will continue to be such, despite Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, OPEC and the OPEC+ group have not publicly commented on the invasion, limiting themselves to saying that the market is currently run by “geopolitical events” or “the geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe,” not by fundamentals.
The Saudi and Russian leaders “gave a positive assessment” of Saudi Arabia and Russia’s cooperation in the OPEC+ group during the phone call on Saturday (April 16), according to a statement from the Kremlin.
The Saudi Press Agency, for its part, said that the Saudi Crown Prince had received a call from Putin in which “bilateral relations between the two countries and ways of enhancing them in all fields in a way that achieves the interests of the two countries and their friendly peoples were discussed.”
👉 Source: OilPrice.com