It will be possible to pay in digital rubles offline, which will make such transactions attractive to fraudsters. Despite this, Russian banks are ready to take part in testing, but they urge to pay attention to information security.

According to the head of the information security service of Novikombank, the main risks will be gaining access to an electronic wallet and fraud using social engineering. “Low public awareness of cybersecurity issues substantially increases these risks. (…) In our opinion, until the problem of conducting fraudulent transactions is resolved taking into account the existing technologies, the use of offline payments is precocious,” he said.

Also, banks are frightened by the possibility of an overflow of funds from non-cash payments to digital rubles, which may affect the existing relationship between banks, shops and payment systems. “The volume of customer funds in banks may decrease, which will lead to increased competition for them. The cost of attracting clients will rise, as a result, it will become more difficult and more expensive for banks to compete with each other”.