Google Pay, PhonePe and Amazon Pay are among five payment firms that are reportedly seeking to join the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) digital currency pilot.
According to a report by the news agency Reuters, three sources who were directly involved in the discussions have claimed that these platforms are planning to offer their users transactions via the RBI’s e-rupee in the coming months
Read More:-Alert For HDFC Bank Customers; These Services To Be Down, Check Maintenance Schedule
The sources also added that domestic fintech firms including Cred and Mobikwik are also applying to join the pilot.
How these platforms may integrate e-Rupee into their services
Platforms like Alphabet-owned Google Pay and Amazon Pay allow users to make payments over India’s widely used Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
Initially, the RBI allowed only banks to offer e-rupee via their mobile apps. However, in April, the central bank announced that payment firms could also offer e-rupee transactions once approved.
Also Read– HDFC Bank UPI downtime: Gpay, WhatsApp Pay, PayTM, HDFC Bank app will not be available on this day
Payment firms are reportedly working closely with the RBI and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The sources claimed that these platforms are expected to roll out access to the e-rupee within the next three to four months.
It’s important to note that collectively, these five payment firms represent over 85% of digital payments facilitated through UPI, which processes nearly 13 billion transactions each month.
Read More: New UPI Rules: RBI Allows Two Users Using Same Bank Account For UPI Payment
What is RBI’s e-Rupee and how popular is it
In 2022, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched the e-rupee pilot as a digital alternative to physical currency. After an initial surge, e-rupee transactions have declined, reflecting the global struggle of central banks to popularise digital currencies.
Last year, transactions using digital currency grew to over 1 million a day. Since then, these transactions have since declined sharply to about 100,000-200,000 a day, one of the sources added.
Read More: RBI Hikes Limit For Tax Payments Via UPI From Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh
The second source noted that allowing popular payment firms to offer e-rupee may help RBI to increase the volumes of digital currency by widening the user base. However, the central bank may not have any immediate plans to do a full-scale launch of the digital currency and may continue to try and popularise the e-rupee, the source claimed.
“The e-rupee is likely to stay in the pilot stage for the next couple of years,” the source added.
