RBI to launch digital rupee pilot for this segment from Nov 1

The Reserve Bank (RBI) on Monday announced the Digital Rupee (e₹). As per official sources, the Central Bank will commence pilot launches of Digital Rupee (e₹) for the wholesale segment (e₹-W) on November 1, 2022.

In a statement, the RBI said the use case for this pilot is settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities.

The use of e₹-W is expected to make the inter-bank market more efficient as the settlement in central bank money would reduce transaction costs by pre-empting the need for settlement guarantee infrastructure or for collateral to mitigate settlement risk.

Subsequently, other wholesale transactions, and cross-border payments will be the focus of future pilots, based on the learning from this pilot.

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“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 have been identified for participation in the pilot,” RBI statement read.

As per RBI, The first pilot in Digital Rupee - Retail segment (e₹-R) has been planned for launch within a month in select locations in closed user groups comprising customers and merchants. The details regarding operationalisation of e₹-R pilot shall be communicated in due course