At a press conference on Wednesday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said the number of transactions using its retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) had reached 770,000 since the pilot began in late November. of 2022.

RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar said that digital rupee volumes are small because most transactions are of very low value. So far, there are 50,000 end users and 5,000 merchants involved. Eight banks are participating in five cities, with five more banks joining and another nine cities planned.

“We want the process to be gradual and slow. We are not in a hurry,” said Rabbi Sankar. “We don’t want to do something without understanding what the potential impact is and (how) that impact can be managed.”

Banks provide wallets for end users to make person-to-person payments or pay for purchases using QR codes.

The eight banks announced earlier are State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, IDFC First Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

The main motivations for India’s digital currency are to reduce the cost of distributing cash and financial inclusion.

With China well advanced in its digital yuan pilots, the world’s two most populous countries with a combined 2.8 billion people will soon make a CBDC available to their citizens. That’s more than a third of the world’s population.

Meanwhile, India’s central bank has launched a wholesale or interbank CBDC trial to settle government bonds at the end of October 2022.