RBI plans to include 5 more banks and another 9 cities for retail CBDC system, says Deputy Governor

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is planning to include five more banks and nine more cities in the retail Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) system, said central bank's Deputy Governor T Rabi Shankar in a post-monetary policy committee (MPC) press conference on February 8.

“There are more than 50,000 users and 5000 merchants participating in the pilot. We have 8 banks participating which we are planning to increase by another five which are in the process and over the time all major banks will be part of the project,” Shankar said.

The pilot project for retail CBDC was launched in five cities, which, Shankar said, is being planned to expand to other 9 cities and gradually we will be increasing that.

On transactions performed under the pilot, Shankar informed that till now 7.70 lakh transactions have been performed. “The amount of these transactions is small and not that significant,” Shankar said.

The central bank has plans in place for expanding the pilot, Shankar said, and it is in no rush to progress without understanding the implications.

“We want the process to happen gradually and slowly. We are in no hurry to make something happen quickly. We have our targets in terms of users and merchants. We do not want to do something without actually understanding what the possible impact is and that impact can be managed,” Shankar said.

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Pilot launch

RBI after launching the wholesale pilot CBDC commenced with its retail CBDC pilot project from December 1.

In its initial stage, the pilot will cover four cities- Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar. The pilot shall be subsequently extended to Ahmedabad, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna, and Shimla.

The apex bank identified eight banks for phase-wise participation in the retail CBDC pilot and the first phase shall commence with four lenders — State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, YES Bank, and IDFC First Bank. Four others — Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.