- RBI has announced the launch of the first pilot for the retail digital rupee on Dec 1.
- Eight banks have been selected to act as an intermediary for the pilot study.
- The pilot study will test the robustness, distribution, and retail usage of the retail CBDC.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that the central bank will launch the first pilot for the retail digital rupee on December 1.
The press release by RBI informed that the pilot will be conducted in “closed user groups,” which consist of various customers and merchants. The digital retail rupee will be represented as a digital token with the properties of a legal tender.
Similar to fiat currencies, the digital retail rupee will be distributed through banks. For the pilot study, eight banks have been selected to act as an intermediary, enabling users to conduct transactions using only their mobile phones or any other devices.
As stated by RBI, the first phase will begin with four banks such as State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, and IDFC First Bank. Indian banks such as Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank will join later in the pilot.
Moreover, RBI is currently focusing its resources to cover the pilot of the retail digital rupee in four cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, and Bhubaneswar. RBI also mentioned other cities such as Ahmedabad, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna, and Shimla will take part in the pilot subsequently.
With the main aim of understanding the digital retail rupee, the pilot study will test the robustness, distribution, and retail usage of India’s retail central bank digital currency (CBDC). The RBI hopes to gradually increase the participation of banks, and users, including allowing many locations to take part in the pilot study.
Concurrently, RBI claimed that different features and applications of the central bank digital rupee will be tested in the future, based on the results of the first pilot study of the digital retail rupee.
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