The Reserve Bank of India is looking to add five more banks and nine additional cities to its pilot project on the retail e-rupee or central bank digital currency — retail (CBDC-R).

“It’s progressing. There are more than 50,000 users now, more than 5,000 merchants who are participating. There are eight banks which are participating which we are planning to increase,” said Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar on Wednesday.

There have been around 7,70,000 transactions so far, but these are all small-value transactions and not significant in terms of the total amount, he said, adding that the proposal to extend the facility to another five banks is in the works, and over time, the RBI will increase it to all major banks.

The retail e-rupee pilot was launched on December 1 with eight banks in five cities. The pilot has been initially launched through State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, YES Bank and IDFC First Bank, and was later extended to Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

“We want the process to happen but gradually and slowly. We are in no rush of trying to make something happen very quickly. We have our targets in terms of users and merchants, and all that we will go through. We don’t want to do something without actually understanding what the possible impact is and whether that impact can be managed,” said Sankar.

In the beginning of January, businessline had reported quoting sources that since the launch of the pilot around 16,000 users had conducted transactions worth approximately ₹64 lakh.

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