The Bank of Russia has announced that its representatives, along with financial market participants, have approved the decision to set up an Association for Financial Technologies Development (FinTech Association).

The meeting, held on 28 December 2016, approved the Association’s charter, the composition of its founding members and the Supervisory Board. A chief executive officer has also been appointed.

“The Association’s key objectives will include the development and introduction of new technological solutions to ensure the development of the Russian financial market. It will also promote digitalisation of the Russian economy”, said Olga Skorobogatova, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia.

In addition to the Bank of Russia, founding members include Alfa Bank, VTB Bank and JSC National System of Payment Cards, Forklog reported. The Association’s participants will study and introduce the most promising technologies, including distributed ledger, open application program interface (open API) and remote identification technologies, as well as to create a single payment space for households and legal entities, etc.

Earlier in October, the central bank announced that along with the market participants, it has developed a technical prototype for financial messaging, based on the distributed ledger technology (DLT). Called ‘Masterchain’, the blockchain-based prototype allows prompt confirmation of data actuality with respect to a customer and a transaction as well as fast creation of various financial opportunities for the market participants to provide game-changing products and services to their customers.

According to the official announcement, the legal registration of the Association is entering its final stage and the documents for state registration will be submitted shortly. The Association is expected to start operations in January 2017.