The central board of directors of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday discussed central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and cryptocurrencies, among other issues, at its 592nd meeting held in Lucknow.
The regulation of private cryptocurrencies has become an area of focus of late, with the central bank warning the government against allowing them even as the latter introduces legislation to regulate cryptos.
The RBI has taken a more positive view of CBDCs and is planning to introduce two variants of it. T Rabi Sankar, deputy governor, RBI, said earlier this month that the central bank is working on two kinds of CBDCs – a wholesale account-based one and a retail one. “Much progress has already been made on the wholesale account-based one, while the retail CBDC is a little more complicated and will take longer. Depending on which is ready first, the RBI will release the digital currencies for a pilot,” Sankar said.
The board on Friday also reviewed the current domestic and global economic situation, evolving challenges and remedial measures. It reviewed the income statement of the RBI for the half year ended September 30, 2021. The board also discussed various areas of operations of the RBI, including functioning of local boards, activities of select central office departments and the draft report on trend and progress of banking in India, 2020-21.
Deputy governors Mahesh Kumar Jain, Michael Debabrata Patra, M Rajeshwar Rao, Sankar and other directors of the central board Satish K Marathe, S Gurumurthy, Revathy Iyer and Sachin Chaturvedi attended the meeting. Debasish Panda, secretary, department of financial services, also took part.
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