RBI to Explore CBDC for Cross-Border Payments

Mumbai, May 29 (PTI) The Reserve Bank will explore the use of CBDC in cross-border transactions besides expanding the digital rupee to more direct benefit transfer schemes and domestic retail space during the current fiscal year.

During 2025-26, the central bank launched multiple Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilots under direct benefit transfer (DBT) schemes of the Centre and state governments, leveraging the programmability capability of CBDCs, said the RBI's annual report for 2025-26.

On cross-border payments, the RBI signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) on digital asset collaboration with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in 2025-26. Also, bilateral discussions with MAS and the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) were held for operationalising a cross-border CBDC pilot.

The Reserve Bank also joined multilateral BIS-Innovation Hub-led initiatives, which are focused on enhancing cross-border payments through CBDCs.


The Reserve Bank plans to expand the CBDC pilot to cover new use cases under DBT schemes and the domestic retail space, while exploring additional pilots on tokenisation of financial assets and widening participant coverage.

On cross-border payments, the RBI intends to operationalise bilateral CBDC pilots with select use cases and deepen engagement in multilateral projects.

"Exploring a bilateral/multilateral crossborder CBDC pilot with select use cases and engaging in multilateral projects on cross-border payments on technical and governance standards" is one of the RBI's agenda for FY27.

Providing a framework for testing of innovative products/services leveraging CBDC under the CBDC and Asset Tokenisation (CAT) sandbox is also on the RBI's to-do list during the current fiscal year.

The value of bank notes in circulation in digital form CBDC-R stood at Rs 771.66 crore as on March 31, 2026, as compared to Rs 1,016.46 crore as on March 31, 2025.