CBDC adoption can make cross border payments more efficient: RBI Governor

Shaktikanta Das

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said on September 4 that cross border payments can be made more efficient through adoption of CBDCs (central bank digital currency).

Das was speaking at G20 TechSprint 2023.

"I strongly believe, cross-border payments can be made more efficient through adoption of CBDCs and this is an area which should receive close attention," Das said in speech.

He further said the empirical data that RBI is generating would go a long way in shaping the policies and future course of action relating to CBDCs.

“With its instant settlement feature, I believe CBDCs can play an important role in making cross-border payment cheaper, faster and more secure,” Das said.

Additionally, he said with its instant settlement feature, CBDCs can play an important role in making cross-border payments cheaper, faster and more secure.

Last year, India has started the pilot testing of CBDCs in both wholesale and retail segment.

Das said slowly and steadily, the central bank is expanding the pilot to more banks, more cities, more people and more use cases.

Earlier today, State Bank of India and IDFC First Bank announced the implementation of unified payments interface (UPI) interoperability in their digital rupee (e₹) or the CBDC.

On the G20 TechSprint, Das said  problem statements identified have been carefully chosen, which pertain to reducing illicit finance risk, forex and technology solutions for currency settlement and technology solutions for multilateral cross border CBDC platforms.

G20 TechSprint 2023 has witnessed encouraging participation from around the world with 93 proposals submitted across the three problem statements.

In collaboration with the BIS, 21 proposals in total (7 each for the three problem statements) were shortlisted.

"These proposals have the potential to bring transformation in the cross-border payments ecosystem in line with the G20 priority," Das said.