Mumbai: The RBI plans to expand the use of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) in cross-border transactions and direct benefit transfer (DBT) schemes during FY27, according to its 2025-26 annual report.
The RBI said it launched multiple CBDC pilots in FY26 under DBT schemes of the Centre & state governments, using programmability features of digital rupee.
To strengthen cross-border payments, the RBI signed an MoU on digital asset collaboration with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and held bilateral discussions with the Singapore regulator and the Central Bank of the UAE to operationalise cross-border CBDC pilots.
The RBI also joined multilateral initiatives led by the BIS Innovation Hub aimed at improving cross-border payments through CBDCs.
In FY27, the RBI plans to widen CBDC pilots across retail and DBT use cases, explore tokenisation of financial assets and expand participant coverage. It also aims to operationalise bilateral and multilateral CBDC pilots with select use cases.
The RBI plans to introduce a framework for testing innovative CBDC-based products and services under its CBDC and Asset Tokenisation sandbox.
CBDC-R circulation value stood at Rs 771.66 crore as of March 31, 2026, down from Rs 1,016.46 crore a year earlier.