First pilot of retail digital rupee on Dec 1

The e-rupee will be a digital token that represents legal tender. It will be issued in the same denominations that paper currency and coins are currently issued.

Hyderabad: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will launch the first pilot for the retail digital rupee on December 1 in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar.

What is e-rupee?

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The e-rupee will be a digital token that represents legal tender. It will be issued in the same denominations that paper currency and coins are currently issued. It will be distributed through banks. Users will be able to transact with e-rupee through a digital wallet offered by the participating banks and stored on mobile phones / devices.

What can it be used for?

Transactions can be both person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M). Payments to merchants can be made using QR codes displayed at merchant locations. The e-rupee will offer features of physical cash like trust, safety and settlement finality. As in the case of cash, it will not earn any interest in the wallet. It can be converted to other forms of money, like deposits with banks.

Other locations

It will be extended to Ahmedabad, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna and Shimla.

Who will issue?

Banks will issue the digital rupee. Eight banks have been identified for phase-wise participation in this pilot. State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank will first launch the CBDC. Four more banks- Bank of Baroda, union Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank- will join this pilot subsequently.

Why pilot?

The pilot will test the robustness of the process of digital rupee creation, distribution and retail usage in real time. Different features and applications of the e-rupee token and architecture will be tested in future, based on the learnings from this pilot. The scope of the pilot may be expanded to include more banks, users and locations as needed.