Fintech & digital payments rules in Russia (2026)

The Bank of Russia published a conceptual regulatory framework to create a licensed domestic cryptocurrency market, with exchanges, brokers, and custodians requiring central bank licenses; the bill passed its first State Duma reading, imposing a 300,000-ruble annual cap on retail investors and mandatory knowledge tests. This marks Russia's first move toward a full domestic regulated crypto-trading regime while maintaining the ban on crypto as domestic payment.

AML/CFT regulation and supervision of all payment acceptance operators was transferred from Rosfinmonitoring to the Bank of Russia, consolidating the entire payments oversight architecture under a single regulator. All operators were simultaneously removed from Rosfinmonitoring's register and brought under Bank of Russia licensing.

Per the 2023 Digital Ruble Law, all major Russian banks were legally required by July 1, 2025 to open digital ruble accounts and process CBDC transfers for retail clients at zero fee; corporate clients are charged 0.3% per payment. Following a pilot involving 9,000 individuals and 1,200 businesses across 11 cities, Russia's third form of money entered the broad public phase.

Russia enacted a comprehensive cryptocurrency tax law recognising digital currency as taxable property, subjecting mining income to personal income tax, and applying a tiered 13–15% rate on trading gains (25% corporate); crypto mining and sales were exempted from VAT. Mining infrastructure operators were required to report activities to the tax authority or face fines, completing Russia's fiscal framework for the crypto sector.

President Putin signed two linked federal laws: one permitting digital financial assets (DFAs) as settlement instruments in cross-border trade agreements with non-residents, and one creating a regulatory sandbox (experimental legal regime) for cryptocurrency use in foreign trade by Russian exporters and importers. Domestic use of crypto as payment remained banned, but the laws opened a significant sanctions-circumvention channel.

Russia enacted amendments to the Civil Code and banking legislation formally establishing the digital ruble as a third form of the national currency, with the Bank of Russia designated as the sole platform operator. The Bank of Russia launched live pilot transactions with real users on August 15, 2023, testing transfers, payments via QR, and smart contracts.

Visa and Mastercard halted all operations in Russia in response to Western sanctions, immediately rendering roughly 210 million international-branded cards non-functional abroad and cutting Russia off from the global card network. The crisis demonstrated the strategic value of NSPK and the Mir card, which continued processing all domestic transactions without interruption.

Putin signed Federal Law No. 259-FZ 'On Digital Financial Assets and Digital Currency,' creating Russia's first comprehensive statutory regime for tokenised assets and cryptocurrency: issuance and trading of DFAs through licensed operators was legalised, but crypto was explicitly banned as domestic payment for goods and services. The law took effect January 1, 2021 and established the Bank of Russia as DFA operator registrar.

Putin signed amendments to the National Payment System Law requiring all banks to pay salaries, pensions, and federal welfare benefits exclusively via Mir cards, with public-sector employees transitioning by July 2018 and pensioners by July 2020. The mandate drove Mir card numbers from roughly 2 million (2016) to 95 million by 2020, establishing Mir as Russia's dominant consumer card.

NSPK JSC began open public issuance of the Mir card — Russia's domestically operated card network — through Gazprombank, RNKB, Bank Rossiya, and others, with Sberbank following in October 2016. The card processes all domestic transactions within Russian infrastructure, insulating them from foreign card-scheme disruption.

Following Visa and Mastercard's March 2014 suspension of services to sanctioned Russian banks after the annexation of Crimea, the Russian government established NSPK JSC — wholly owned by the Bank of Russia — to process all domestic card transactions and launch a sovereign card scheme. NSPK absorbed domestic processing of Visa and Mastercard transactions by April 2015.

Russia enacted Federal Law No. 161-FZ 'On the National Payment System,' the statutory backbone of all subsequent payments regulation: it defined payment systems and participants, established e-money and electronic payment instrument rules, granted the Bank of Russia supervisory authority, and required key system functions to be performed within Russia. Driven by the rise of internet payments, it set the framework for Mir, SBP, and all later licensing regimes.