RBI to launch pilot of retail digital rupee on Dec 1

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank said on Tuesday that it will launch the first pilot for retail digital rupee on December 1, in which four banks, including SBI and ICICI Bank, will initially participate. On November 1, the RBI had launched the first pilot in the digital rupee – wholesale segment. Announcing the operationalisation of the Central Bank Digital Currency Retail Pilot, the RBI said the pilot would cover select locations in closed user group (CUG) comprising participating customers and merchants. The pilot would initially cover four cities including, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar.

Users will be able to transact in digital rupee using wallets offered by participating banks: RBI

"The digital rupee would be in the form of a digital token that represents legal tender. It would be issued in the same denominations that paper currency and coins are currently issued," said RBI. "It would be distributed through banks and users will be able to transact in it using a digital wallet offered by the participating banks and stored on mobile phones/devices. Transactions can be both Person to Person (P2P) and Person to Merchant (P2M)," it added.

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Digital rupee will offer features of physical cash: RBI

The RBI further said the digital rupee would offer features of physical cash like trust, safety and settlement finality.

"As in the case of cash, it will not earn any interest and can be converted to other forms of money, like deposits with banks," the central bank said.

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