RBI to Explore Central Bank Digital Currency Pilot in Cross-Border Transactions

Reserve Bank to Explore Cross-Border CBDC Transactions

The Reserve Bank will investigate the use of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in cross-border transactions, in addition to expanding the digital rupee to more direct benefit transfer schemes and domestic retail space, during the current fiscal year.

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

CBDC Pilots Launched in 2025-26

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The Reserve Bank signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on digital asset collaboration with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in 2025-26. Bilateral discussions with MAS and the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) were also held for operationalising a cross-border CBDC pilot. The Reserve Bank joined multilateral BIS-Innovation Hub-led initiatives, which aim to enhance cross-border payments through CBDCs.

Expansion of CBDC Pilot

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. This is in line with the RBI's agenda for FY27, which involves exploring a bilateral/multilateral cross-border CBDC pilot with select use cases and engaging in multilateral projects on cross-border payments on technical and governance standards.

CBDC and Asset Tokenisation Sandbox

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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.

Digital Rupee Circulation

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.