In December, the Reserve Bank of India will begin a retail CBDC experiment

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is getting ready to launch the retail pilot of the “digital rupee” after testing its use in wholesale transactions. Within a month, the pilot should begin flying.

The RBI is reportedly finalizing its plans for the launch of the retail digital rupee pilot, according to the Economic Times of India. State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, and IDFC First Bank are a few of the participants. All of the commercial banks in the nation are reportedly going to participate in the pilot at some time.

Each bank taking part in the study will use 10,000 to 50,000 people to test the CBDC. The PayNearby and Bankit platforms will work with the banks to add the new payment option. The National Payments Corporation of India will be in charge of the CBDC infrastructure (NPCI). According to the unnamed source’s instructions to Indian journalists:

“The e-rupee will be stored in a wallet, the denominations will be available as per the customer’s request, just like you request cash from an ATM. Banks are launching this only in select cities.”

Customers and retailers will both need to download the CBDC-specific wallets, though the RBI eventually hopes to completely integrate it with current digital banking services. According to reports, rather than replacing the current payment system, the digital rupee is meant to be an addition to it.

The RBI began testing the digital rupee’s wholesale segment on November 1. The secondary market settlement of transactions involving government securities has been its primary use case. At the time of writing, however, there is no information available regarding the wholesale pilot’s successful conclusion.