RBI's Deputy Governor T. Rabi Shankar said that by the end of Month, Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) will be interoperable with the UPI QR code. It means participants of CBDC's pilot project will be able to transfer CBDC to another user's CBDC account if he has one, else the CBDC will be transferred to his UPI-linked Bank account.

He was addressing a conference on CBDC organized by Indian Bank Association in Mumbai today. Mr. Rabi Shankar said, currently 13 lakh retail customers are 3 lakh merchants are the participants in pilot testing of CBDC launched in November last year. Currently around 5 to 10 thousand transactions are being done using CBDC, but RBI expects it to reach a million transactions per day by the end of the year. Deputy Governor also said that there will not be much difference between UPI transactions and CBDC transactions at user end. He also clarified that RBI is not thinking of providing incentives for the usage of CBDC. Deputy Governor reiterated that CBDC is not just a payment instrument but it is a digital currency. Its potential is much wider, he added.