Digital Rupee: RBI widens scope of CBDC; non-banking payment companies to facilitate transactions

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Reserve Bank of India has proposed that CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) or, the eRupee, to be accessible to broader sectors of customers by enabling non-bank payment system operators to offer CBDC wallets.
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According to the RBI's Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies issued on April 5, 2024, “Distribution of CBDCs through Non-bank Payment System Operators CBDC pilots in the Retail and Wholesale segments are underway with more use-cases and more participating banks. Continuing with this approach, it is proposed to make CBDC-Retail accessible to a broader segment of users in a sustained manner, by enabling non-bank payment system operators to offer CBDC wallets. This is expected to enhance access and expand choices available to users apart from testing the resiliency of the CBDC platform to handle multi-channel transactions. Necessary changes will be made to the system to facilitate this.”

Further, the RBI governor said during his Monetary Policy Review speech, «The CBDC pilots are currently in operation with increasing number of use-cases and participating banks. It is proposed to make CBDC-Retail accessible to a broader segment of users by enabling non-bank payment system operators to offer CBDC wallets. This will also facilitate testing of the resiliency of CBDC platform to handle multi-channel transactions. „

What is a CBDC?

The full form of CBDC is Central Bank Digital Currency is a legal tender issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). “CBDC is the same as currency issued by a central bank