The Central Bank of the Russian Federation, which brands itself as Bank of Russia and is also commonly referred to in English as the Central Bank of Russia (CBR), is the central bank of the Russian Federation. The bank was established on July 13, 1990. It claims the legacy of the State Bank of the Russian Empire (1860-1920) and of the Soviet Gosbank (1921-1992), even though both institutions covered a significant larger territorial scope.

The State Bank of the Russian Empire was the dominant financial institution of the Russian Empire following its founding in 1860 and until the Empire's demise in 1917. A public bank headquartered in Saint Petersburg, it initially coexisted with the Bank Polski until the latter was deprived of its residual monetary role in 1870, and with the Bank of Finland which soon defined a separate monetary zone for the Finnish markka. In 1897, with the Russian adoption of the gold standard, the State Bank fully took the attributes of a central bank, while keeping a significant additional role of commercial and development lending that made it the main source of credit to the Russian economy.