Page 14 - Cbdc News Today

India announced a pilot for its own central bank digital currency (CBDC), the Digital Rupee, with over a million users registered. CBDCs are seen as transformative catalysts that improve financial inclusion and security

Last week I testified in the U.S. House regarding the implications of a central bank digital currency. The hearing underscored that the U.S. does not need a CBDC.

Credit and Debit Card Controls Could Pave the Way for CBDCs.

In 2022, the RBI floated digital Rupee, India’s very own CBDC, and an electronic form of sovereign currency. 

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is collaborating with lenders to enhance the popularity of its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the e-rupee. Features being considered include enabling digital rupee transactions offline and linking the e-rupee to Indias Unified Payments Interface (UPI). The RBI has urged banks to make the e-rupee interoperable with UPI through a QR code.

Retail CBDC transactions are averaging close to 18,000 a day, way short of the RBIs one million-a-day target by 2023 end. The features include allowing digital rupee transactions when a customer is offline and linking the e-rupee to Indias popular Unified Payments Interface (UPI), three of the people quoted above said.

The pilot of the wholesale CBDC, known as the Digital Rupee-Wholesale (e-W), was launched on November 1, 2022, with the use case being limited to the settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities.

"The RBI will introduce the wholesale CBDC in the call market either this month or next month," Choudhary said on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders Summit in New Delhi. The introduction of CBDC was announced in the Union Budget 2022-23 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and necessary amendments to the relevant section of the RBI Act, 1934, were made with the passage of the Finance Bill 2022.

The RBI launched the pilot for its wholesale central bank digital currency in November. While there have been few transactions, RBI executive director Ajay Choudhary says the use cases are being tested in silos deliberately

Several banks have recently enabled a new functionality for their customers who are transacting using e-Rupee or Digital Rupee, which is Indias Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) product. This new functionality enables Digital Rupee users to scan UPI QR codes to make payments in CBDC. Read here for details.