Govt, RBI actively working on CBDC to enable cross border payment: FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the government and the Reserve Bank are actively engaged in improving the central bank digital currency (CBDC) so that it can be used for cross-border payments.

RBI began the pilot project wholesale CBDC and picked up nine banks — State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, YES Bank, IDFC First Bank, and HSBC.

Besides, RBI has already rolled out a pilot in the retail version of CBDC or the e-rupee on December 1, 2022. The e-rupee is in the form of a digital token that represents legal tender.