The pilot project for the wholesale CBDC, known as the Digital Rupee-Wholesale (e-W), was launched on November 1, 2022.
New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is planning to launch a pilot project for its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in the call money market by October. The call money market is a short-term interbank lending market where banks lend and borrow money from each other. The CBDC will be used as a token for settlement in this market, as per a rerport in the news agency PTI.
What Is Digital Rupee-Wholesale (e-W)?
The pilot project for the wholesale CBDC, known as the Digital Rupee-Wholesale (e-W), was launched on November 1, 2022. The use case for this pilot was limited to the settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities. The new pilot project will expand the use case of the CBDC to include transactions in the call money market.
RBI Testing Feasibility and Efficiency of CBDC
The RBI is conducting these pilot projects to test the feasibility and efficiency of the CBDC. The central bank is also looking to gather feedback from the participants in these markets to improve the design of the CBDC.
“The RBI will introduce the wholesale CBDC in the call market either this month or next month,” Choudhary said on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders’ Summit here. The introduction of CBDC was announced in the Union Budget 2022-23 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and necessary amendments to the relevant section of the RBI Act, 1934, were made with the passage of the Finance Bill 2022.
RBI Selects 9 Banks: Check Full List Here
The RBI picked nine banks — 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 — for its pilot project for wholesale CBDC.
Besides, the central bank has already rolled out a pilot in the retail version of the CBDC (e-R) on December 1, 2022. The e-R 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. It is being distributed through financial intermediaries like banks. Users can transact with e-R through a digital wallet offered by the participating banks.
The RBI is showcasing various digital initiatives in the financial sector at the exhibition pavilion during the G20 Summit. These include Public Tech Platform (PTP) for Frictionless Credit, CBDC, UPI One World, RuPay On-The-Go and Bharat Bill Payment System.
(With inputs from PTI)