HDFC Bank attracts 1 lakh customers in digital rupee trials

Country's largest private lender HDFC Bank on Thursday said it has signed up over 100,000 customers and 170,000 merchants in pilot programmes using the central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The lender also linked the CBDC, termed e-rupee, and United Payments Interface (UPI) for merchants and customers, which would enable payments through both CBDC and UPI using a single Quick Response (QR) code, HDFC Bank said in a statement.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has devised the e-rupee as a digital alternative to physical cash, using blockchain distributed-ledger technology.

The central bank aims to reach a target of one million CBDC transactions per day by the end of this year from 5000-10,000 currently, Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar said on Tuesday.