Russia’s Central Bank Expects to Pass Draft Cryptocurrency Bill in Spring 2019

Russia’s Central Bank believes a draft bill on cryptocurrency regulation is ready for adoption in spring 2019 , local news agency TASS reported May 22.
Olga Skorobogatova, first deputy governor of the Central Bank of Russia, said that the bank expects the “Digital Financial Assets” (DFA) bill on cryptocurrencies to be adopted by decree of the country’s president during the 2019 spring session.
Speaking at a recent parliamentary session, Skorobogatova said that the DFA, as well as the draft bills on crowdfunding and other crypto-related matters, would be at a “sufficiently high level of preparedness” during the session.
The official also stressed that all these draft laws are “of vital importance to the country and will allow the implementation of new projects.” Conversely, Russian Prime Minister and former President Dmitry Medvedev recently stated that crypto regulation is not a priority in Russia because authorities at the time believed that cryptocurrencies “have lost popularity.”
Yesterday, the chairman of the Russian parliament’s Financial Markets Committee revealed that Russian authorities had to postpone the second trial of DAF due to an order from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF).
While the FATF is asking Russia to legislate on key industry terms such as “ cryptocurrency ” and “Bitcoin (BTC)”, the Russian Central Bank is reportedly influencing lawmakers to avoid including some of the terms in the bill. ( Blockchain Pencil)