India’s cenbank and banks plan new features to boost digital currency transactions. ACCORDING TO SIX SOURCES, the RBI is working with lenders to add new features to popularize the central bank digital currency (CBDC), the e-rupee.
Retail CBDC transactions are 18,000 daily, much below the RBI’s one million-a-day objective by 2023. Three reported persons stated that the features include offline digital rupee transactions and tying the e-rupee to India’s ubiquitous Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
UPI provides real-time money transfers between several banks without bank account data.
The sources refused to be named since they are not media-authorized. RBI did not reply to an email request for comment. Two bankers claimed the RBI had encouraged banks to make the e-rupee UPI-compatible through QR codes. They asserted compatibility would enable payments using well-distributed UPI QRs.
Large banks, including India’s biggest lender, State Bank of India, activated the June facility.
Interoperability of UPI QR Code with digital rupee would minimize friction. Still, CBDC payments must be incentivized to encourage adoption, “Sharat Chandra, co-founder of India Blockchain Forum, an industry collaborative.
The RBI and banks are also considering methods to enable e-rupee while customers and merchants are offline, according to two pilot project sources.
The source said the RBI is reviewing technological suggestions but hasn’t authorized any.
Two persons familiar with the preparations said HDFC Bank is collaborating with IDEMIA to create offline CBDC transactions for feature phones. HDFC Bank wouldn’t comment.
Akhil Handa, a Bank of Baroda official, claimed CBDC’s offline mode will enable transactions without network access.
“New features will gradually increase retail CBDC transaction volumes,” stated Handa.
Comment Template