Last updated on September 7th, 2023 at 03:18 pm
The State Bank of India (SBI) has added support for the Unified Payment Interface to its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) app, ‘eRupee by SBI’. The integration will allow the app users to conduct swift and secure transactions by scanning UPI QR codes.
The UPI system is India’s foremost instant payment service. It powers inter-bank peer-to-peer (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions, and it is the underlying infrastructure for financial transactions in the country.
Notably, the instant payment system is the world’s largest instant payment system. It achieved an impressive milestone of 9 billion transactions valued at $180 billion in May 2023. The figure increased to 10 billion transactions in August 2023.
According to the SBI, integrating the UPI into its eRupee app demonstrates its unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of digital innovation to accelerate India’s transition to a more cashless economy.
SBI was among the pioneering banks to participate in the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) retail digital e-rupee project, which began toward the end of 2022. Other prominent banks that joined this initiative in the pilot phase include Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, IDFC First Bank, and HSBC.
The RBI began the pilot phase for the wholesale segment of the CDBC program in November 2022 and followed with the retail segment in December of the same year.
In its annual report released in May 2023, the RBI signaled its intent to expand the CBDC pilot program during the upcoming fiscal year. The Indian Central Bank specifically revealed plans to incorporate broader use cases and functionalities within the retail CBDC program.
These expansion efforts align with the RBI’s commitment to enhancing the Indian payment ecosystem.
The RBI Governor, Shaktikanta Das, recently indicated the bank’s new plan to integrate an AI-powered conversational payment system into the UPI. The Governor noted that this feature would empower Indians to initiate and complete transactions faster and elevate their digital payment experience.
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