Reserve Bank of India to launch retail CBDC pilot in December

The digital rupee is intended to complement the current payment system, not replace it.

After testing the wholesale use of its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is gearing up to conduct the "digital rupee" retail pilot. The pilot should be launched within a month.

According to the Economic Times of India, the RBI is in the final stages of preparing to roll out the digital rupee retail pilot. Among the participants are State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank. Apparently, at some point, the pilot project will include all commercial banks in the country.

Each bank participating in the trial will test the CBDC with 10,000 to 50,000 users. To integrate the new payment option, banks will collaborate with the PayNearby and Bankit platforms. The CBDC infrastructure will be owned by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). As the anonymous source clarified to Indian reporters:

"The electronic rupee will be stored in a wallet, denominations will be available as per customer demand, just like you request money from an ATM. Banks only release it in certain cities."

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Customers and merchants will need to download the special wallets for the CBDC, although later the RBI plans to fully integrate it with existing digital banking services. Apparently, the digital rupee is intended to complement the current payment system, not replace it.

The wholesale segment driver for the digital rupee