The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reportedly asked four Indian public-sector banks to trial India’s central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, and Bank of Baroda have been asked to run the pilot internally, said one of the officials.
Another senior public-sector bank official confirmed the news, “There is a pilot on CBDCs. The RBI may come with the launch this year. When it will exactly roll out the product and specifications is to be seen.”
It is also reported that the RBI is consulting with several fintech companies including the US-based firm FIS on the issue. FIS has been advising central banks on CBDC issues, such as offline and programmable payments, financial inclusion, and cross-border CBDC payments.
Julia Demidova, senior director at FIS said, “FIS has had various engagements with the RBI…and, of course, our connected ecosystem could be extended to the RBI to experiment various CBDC options.”
She further added, “Whether it is a wholesale or retail CBDC transaction, our technology can also be extended to commercial banks where they can test and tokenize central bank money in the form of digital regulated money.”
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