RBI Monetary Policy | RBI allows non-bank payment system operators to distribute retail CBDC

The RBI started the pilot for retail CBDC on December 1, 2022.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed non-bank payment system operators to distribute retail central bank digital currency (CBDC), Governor Shaktikanta Das said on April 5.

The CBDC pilots are currently in operation with an increasing number of use-cases and participating banks. It is proposed to make CBDC-Retail accessible to a broader segment of users by enabling non-bank payment system operators to offer CBDC wallets, Das said.

The governor added that this will facilitate testing of the resilience of the CBDC platform to handle multi-channel transactions.

The RBI started the pilot for retail CBDC on December 1, 2022.

The Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy committee (MPC) on April 5 left the key repo rate unchanged at 6.5 percent for the seventh time in a row, in line with the market expectations, with its focus firmly on bringing inflation down.

In its first meeting of FY 25, the rate-setting panel left the stance unchanged as withdrawal of accommodation. The decisions were takes with a 5:1 majority. Repo is the rate at which the central bank lends money to banks for the short term.

The RBI Governor also announced that there will be no changes in the GDP growth forecast for FY25. The GDP growth estimate was retained at 7 percent for the current fiscal year. On the inflation front, the RBI MPC sees it at 4.5 percent for FY25.

Between May 2022 and February 2023, the rate-setting panel raised the repo rate by 250 basis points (bps) but has since held it steady