HDFC Bank has launched a QR code service meant to facilitate both Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), or eRupee, and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions. According to the reports, the bank has advanced the digital currency environment by distributing 1,00,000 digital rupee wallets to its client base and has made progress in enabling roughly 170,000 merchant outlets to accept CBDC transactions.
QR Compatibility
According to Parag Rao, HDFC Bank’s Country Head of Payments, Consumer Finance, Technology, and Digital Banking, “the QR interoperability of CBDC with the popular UPI will benefit its usage.”. Users with Android 10+ smartphones can now access the application that supports these features. The launch of this platform is yet another step forward in India’s banking and finance sector’s fast digitalization.
What is CBDC?
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issues the CBDC, a digital counterpart of real money. Digital Rupee tokens behave similarly to actual banknotes and coins, allowing you to utilize them as a currency alternative. For paperless transactions, users can save digital rupees in their bank’s digital wallet. The RBI develops and distributes tokens to financial companies known as Token Service Providers (TSPs), according to the HDFC website. The banks chosen for the Digital Rupee Pilot Programme to issue tokens to interested clients are known as TSPs.
Banks That Provide CDBC
The Ministry of Finance stated in December last year that the RBI had identified the State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, and IDFC First Bank for the first phase of the retail pilot project, and the Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank for the second phase.
In order to achieve a considerable increase in eRupee usage, RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar stated a target set by the central bank to accomplish a daily volume of 1 million eRupee transactions by the end of the year, according to reports.
