Digital currency pilot has been taken up with vigour by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Alongside all the preparations, RBI has now reportedly picked five banks to work on the retail project of central bank digital currency (CBDC). With this, the pilot for this retail CBDC is expected to go live soon.
As per a report in the Economic Times, the list of shortlisted banks includes names like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), IDFC First Bank and others. It adds that RBI is mulling on whether the retail CBDC or digital currency should be interoperable with the current digital payments or a new framework should be built for the same.
The publication quoted a person familiar with the matter saying, “Five banks have been shortlisted to run the pilot along with the help of NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) and RBI. Some customer and merchant accounts will be chosen to roll out the retail digital rupee pilot soon.”
It even mentioned that in the coming days, more banks are expected to be added in the list of shortlists for retail CBDC. In its CBDC concept note, RBI said, “Reasonable anonymity for small-value transactions akin to anonymity associated with physical cash may be a desirable option for CBDC-R.”
Apart from this, the report goes on to add that RBI is also considering some changes in digital currency retail, but with Unified Payments Interface (UPI). It reportedly is considering whether to make current QR codes and UPI platform interoperable with CBDC-R.
