Yes Bank announced on August 30 that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) central bank digital currency (Digital Rupee) will have enhanced usability. This is thanks to Yes Bank’s integration of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with the RBI Digital Rupee app. Now, Yes Bank account holders will be able to transact in digital rupees by scanning UPI QR codes.
UPI is a national payments portal operated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), a division of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). NPCI provides the infrastructure for UPI and the digital rupee. According to local media reports, 150 million merchants in India use UPI.
We are pleased to announce that YES BANK has enabled Unified Payments Interface (UPI) interoperability on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) application.
With this, users can scan any UPI-enabled QR code through YES BANK digital rupee… pic.twitter.com/dXxrerptoC
— YES BANK (@YESBANK) August 30, 2023
The Yes Bank app marks the first integration of UPI with a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Yes Bank executive Ajay Rajan said in a statement:
“The transition to an interoperable CBDC platform is expected to provide YES BANK customers with seamless, efficient and broader transaction capabilities. […] Driven by enhanced convenience and accessibility, this transformative enabler will facilitate a quantum leap in CBDC usage. ”
Yes Bank is one of eight original participating banks in the retail digital rupee pilot project, which launched in December. The project has attracted 5,000 participating merchants and 50,000 CBDC users, and has conducted 800,000 transactions worth $134 million as of February. A separate wholesale digital rupee pilot was launched in November.
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Some stores of the country’s large Reliance Retail chain have already accepted the digital rupee, which launched a joint initiative with ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Innoviti Technologies in February using QR codes.
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