Cred, MobiKwik Launch India's First Fintech CBDC Wallets on RBI E-Rupee Rails
Cred and MobiKwik became the first fintech firms to offer RBI's CBDC (E-Rupee) e-wallets, sponsored by Yes Bank. The wallets support UPI-based P2P and merchant payments with a Rs 50,000 daily limit, Rs 10,000 per transaction, and PIN-less payments below Rs 500—expanding India's digital payment infrastructure for retail operators.
What happened
Cred and MobiKwik became the first fintech firms to launch RBI CBDC (E-Rupee) e-wallets, sponsored by Yes Bank, supporting UPI-based P2P and merchant payments,
Key facts
- Rs 50,000 daily limit
- Rs 10,000 per transaction
- PIN-less below Rs 500
Why this matters
Yes Bank's sponsorship model for fintech CBDC wallets creates a template for bank-fintech partnerships, opening potential acquisition and integration plays around E-Rupee distribution rails.
What to watch
- RBI raising the Rs 50,000 daily / Rs 10,000 per-txn limits
- Additional sponsor banks or fintechs announced as CBDC issuers
- Offline CBDC payment capability rollout
- Merchant acceptance footprint and transaction volume disclosures
- Any interoperability mandate linking CBDC wallets across apps
- Expect PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm to seek CBDC sponsor-bank tie-ups to avoid ceding first-mover narrative
- Sponsor banks (Yes Bank et al.) will bundle merchant acquiring incentives to seed CBDC acceptance at retail POS
- Fintechs will layer rewards or offline-payment features to differentiate CBDC from vanilla UPI
- Retail operators will pilot CBDC settlement for programmable/conditional payments and vendor disbursements