RBI's retail CBDC generates over 750,000 transactions so far: Deputy Guv

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) retail Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot has so far generated about 770,000 transactions, with a user base of 50,000 customers and 5,000 merchants, the central bank said on Wednesday.

It is looking to expand the scope of the pilot by including nine more cities into the fold from the current five cities where the pilot is being undertaken.

Further, five more banks will be roped in for pilot runs and eventually it will be extended to all banks in the system. Currently, eight banks are participating in the pilot. 

“Total number of transactions … is around 770,000 till about a few days ago. But these are small value transactions, so the amount is not that significant,” said T Rabi Sankar, deputy governor, at the post-monetary policy press conference.

He stressed on the fact that the central bank is taking a measured approach when it comes to retail CBDC. “We want the process to happen gradually and slowly. We are in no hurry to make something happen very quickly. We have our targets in terms of users and merchants. We will go about it slowly.”

“As I have told earlier, we don’t want to do something without actually understanding what the possible impact is and if that impact can be managed,” he added.

The RBI launched the pilot project for retail CBDC on December 1 last year. Eight banks are participating in the retail pilot project, including State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, IDFC First Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

The retail CBDC is in the form of a digital token that represents legal tender. It is being issued in the same denominations as the paper currency and coins and distributed through financial intermediaries, i.e., the banks. Transactions can be both person to person (P2P) and person to merchant (P2M).