RBI MPC meet: Plan to have 1 million CBDC customers by June end, says deputy governor Rabi Shankar

RBI is also working right now on making the CBDC QR codes interoperable with UPI, said Shankar

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plans to have one million customers under the central bank digital currency (CBDC) by the end of June, deputy governor T Rabi Shankar said on June 8.

"No specific date for the launch of CBDC to the public at large but we hope to have 1 million customers by June end," Shankar said during a post-monetary policy committee press conference.

The RBI's Monetary Policy Committee retained the repo rate, the key short-term lending rate, at 6.5 percent in line with expectations. It also stuck to “withdrawal-of-accommodation” stance during its bi-monthly policy review.

The central bank was also working on making the CBDC QR codes interoperable with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

Earlier, the RBI in its annual report said it was aiming to expand the CBDC pilot in the fiscal year (FY) 2023-24 to more locations and banks.

Also read: RBI Annual Report: Ongoing CBDC pilots to be expanded to more locations, banks

Digital rupee pilot

The central bank on October 31, 2022 launched the first pilot of the digital rupee in the wholesale segment with nine banks.

The nine lenders were State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, IDFC First Bank and HSBC.

A month later, the RBI kick-started the pilot for the retail version of the CBDC.

Also read: CBDC retail pilot: Some customers complain of technical glitches in apps, transactions

The retail digital rupee, or e₹-R, can be used by people for day-to-day transactions.

State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, IDFC First Bank, BOB, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank are participating in the retail project.

These banks can invite select customers and merchants to try the services through their mobile applications. After this, these users can make peer-to-peer transactions and peer-to-merchant transactions.