This week the Reserve Bank of India released figures showing a tiny balance for its wholesale central bank digital currency (wholesale CBDC). At the end of March 2024 the figure was just 800,000 rupees, equivalent to less than $10,000. That’s down from Rupee 107 million ($1.3m) the previous March.
In November 2022, India started piloting its first wholesale CBDC use case to settle secondary market transactions for government bonds. One unusual aspect was this reportedly used an account based wholesale CBDC whereas they are typically token based. By February activity had already trailed off and the central bank said it was planning numerous other use cases. It also wanted to try different technology setups.
The same nine banks were involved in a second use case for interbank lending in the call money markets. It started in October 2023, but little further news has been released. Subsequently, there was an unconfirmed report that India was planning to go live with its wholesale CBDC in January 2024. So far that has not transpired. In April the central bank held meetings with the payment sector, aiming to address the lack of wholesale and consumer interest.
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