India in talks with countries in LatAm, Africa for UPI, RuPay

livemint.com:

Mint reported that India was holding discussions with Namibia, Mozambique and Kenya to enter into commercial partnerships for launching UPI in the markets. “We have specific objectives for popularising and internationalising Rupay and UPI," he added. Ritesh Shukla, the international chief executive of NPCI, recently said the number of countries using UPI will double in 12-18 months.

The official said that RBI is also planning to launch wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the interbank borrowing market, especially call money market. Interbank borrowing facilitates banks to borrow money from other banks to maintain sufficient liquidity for immediate needs, and is typically a short-term arrangement. Interbank call money market is a short-term money market allowing financial institutions like banks, mutual funds, and corporations, to lend and borrow money at interbank rates.

“The purpose of wholesale CBDCs has been to try out different technologies. Going forward, we will try other technologies, like using CBDCs as tokens for call money settlements," he added. “Experimenting with technology is relatively easier for wholesale CBDC pilots," he said.

RBI had started piloting CBDCs last year for both retail and wholesale segments. It is aiming to scale the number of CBDC transactions to one million per day by 2023-end. “We are confident of achieving the target within December 2023.