RBI to widen e-Rupee CBDC pilot into cross-border, welfare and retail merchant rails
RBI plans to scale its e-Rupee pilot — already at 8M users and 120M transactions worth ₹28,000 crore — into bilateral cross-border corridors with UAE and Singapore, programmable DBT for PDS subsidies, and domestic retail merchant payments through FY26.
What happened
RBI will expand e-Rupee CBDC pilot into cross-border payments, welfare DBT and domestic retail merchant use, with bilateral corridors planned with UAE and
Key facts
- 8 million users
- 120 million transactions
- ₹28,000 crore
- 4 million Indians in UAE
Why this matters
Scout partnerships or M&A in CBDC wallet infra, programmable money middleware, and cross-border settlement plumbing before incumbents lock in RBI corridor mandates and merchant integrations harden.