RBI working on off-line mode to boost retail CBDC volumes: Guv Shaktikanta Das

The pace of retail transactions using the central bank digital currency has picked up but more needs to be done to attain the kind of acceptance that the Unified Payments Interface enjoys, Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das said, while highlighting the potential of the CBDC to deepen financial inclusion.

“We have leveraged the existing merchant infrastructure on the UPI to facilitate CBDC transactions...while the number of transactions have reached a high of 1 million (10 lakh) a day, we still see preference for UPI among the retail users. We of course hope that this will change going forward,” Das said via videoconference at the BIS Innovation Summit 2024.

Amongst methods to boost the use of the CBDC, Das said that the RBI was working on making the digital currency transferable in the off-line mode, while introducing programmability features and other value-added services to push for financial inclusion.


The RBI governor also reiterated the central bank’s stand on the anonymity of the CBDC, stressing that it would be no different from cash.

“Anonymity can be addressed through legislation and/or through technology. For example, through permanent deletion of transactions. That could be one method. The basic principle is that CBDC can have the same degree of anonymity as cash. No more and no less,” he said.

Das also assuaged any concerns about the CBDC posing a risk for banks’ business models by reminding viewers that the RBI’s digital currency had been envisaged as being non-remunerative and non-interest bearing.

“This feature should mitigate any potential risk of bank disintermediation,” he said.

He acknowledged feedback from retail users calling for a connect between fast-payment systems such as the UPI and the CBDC. In this context, Das listed out steps taken by the RBI such as a provision to combine CBDC QR codes with UPI QR codes and create single points of acceptance.

Elaborating further on the interoperability feature of the UPI and the CBDC, Das said that if customers make CBDC payments, merchants can receive money in UPI-linked bank accounts even if they do not possess CBDC wallets.

Highlighting the considerable scope for further digitalisation of payments, Das said that the adoption of CBDC had great potential to bring down costs of cross-border transactions while providing a much safer alternative to private digital currencies.

On the wholesale side, Das said that in addition to the pilots currently being carried out in the government securities market and the interbank call money market, the RBI would also try out pilots for instruments such as commercial papers and certificates of deposits.