Indian Central Bank Set A Bold Goal With 1 Million CBDC Users By The End Of This Month

Key Points:

• By the end of this month, the Indian central bank expects to have one million CBDC clients.
• The central bank intends to make CBDC QR codes compatible with the widely used UPI.
• In addition, non-bank prepaid payment instrument (PPI) issuers are now permitted to offer e-RUPI vouchers.

After the monetary policy pronouncements on Thursday, T Ravi Shankar, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), said that the Indian central bank intends to reach the one million user milestone for the central bank’s digital currency, or Digital Rupee.

It should be noted that the RBI is currently conducting the Digital Rupee pilot test and does not have a definite date for when CBDC use will be available throughout India. Shankar said that this would be a “gradual and calibrated” transformation that would primarily concentrate on internalizing learnings as the usage of CBDCs grows.

On November 1 of last year, the RBI issued a digital rupee for the wholesale sector. On December 1, the first retail digital rupee trial was launched.

The experiment was launched in four cities (Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, and Bhubaneswar) with a limited user group of consumers and merchants. Later, it was progressively expanded to cities like Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna, and Shimla. Initially, the CBDC was comprised of just the State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, YES Bank, and IDFC First Bank. Banks such as Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank eventually joined the league.

According to the RBI’s deputy governor, Mint Road intends to make CBDC QR codes compatible with India’s very successful Universal Payments Interface (UPI).

UPI enables financial or digital transactions in which the beneficiary may pay using debit or credit cards, online banking, or mobile wallets. In India, UPI has grown in popularity, with QR code scanning at merchants or amongst peers being the most popular function.

The central bank allows non-bank prepaid payment instruments (PPI) issuers to issue e-RUPI vouchers and also allows the issuing of e-RUPI vouchers on behalf of people in order to broaden the scope and reach of e-RUPI vouchers.

According to Rajsri Rengan, India Head of Development, Banking, and Payments at FIS, the extension of e-RUPI vouchers, which includes non-bank PPI issuers and individual issuance, is a significant step toward improving financial inclusiveness and accessibility.

The Reserve Bank of India released the Digital Lending regulatory framework last year. It has now agreed to offer guidelines on Default Loss Guarantee arrangements in digital lending. With the default loss guarantee provisions in digital lending, it will now be easier to expand the digital lending ecosystem in an orderly manner and increase credit penetration in the economy.

DISCLAIMER: The information on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.

Join us to keep track of news: https://linktr.ee/coincu

Harold

Coincu News