Select Page

Cash and digital are co-existing, and there is the need for it to co-exist in the later future too, believes P Vasudevan, Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India.

While speaking at the Global Fintech Fest 2023, the RBI ED said while dealing with cash, you’ve to ensure each pocket has cash. But in digital, there will probably be less demand of movement of cash.

“Physical cash is a backup currency in case of system failure,” he added.

“Need for cash is typically everywhere. On an yearly basis, 100s and 1000s of shipments happen for currency, and we need to ensure currency is available. Currency is a confidence boosting measure also, if it vanishes there will be a major lack of confidence,” he maintained.

He further stated that the liquidity management and cash management are integral. In currency management, we want to ensure that we give the comfort that money will be given whenever you desire.

‘We have had white label ATMs in the cash dispensation part. It is possible to customise ATMs to the requirements of small businesses.’

UPI and CBDC

RBI ED highlighted that UPI in terms of volume is staggering, but the value if you see has now becoming stagnant.

“CBDC has been talked about quite a bit. It is still in pilot stage, and many more use cases are to be looked at. We are interested in offline transaction or contactless transaction in pilot projects,” he said.

“We need to look at the issue of double spend in CBDC context. CBDC is going to transcend in many areas but it will be useful especially in cross border context,” he highlighted.

“QR codes until recently were an alien feature, but now we are very much comfortable, not just scan and pay but scan and eat, scan and travel, etc.”

Also Read: CBDC to transcend in areas like cross border payments, can explore more on B2B side: Leaders

He further said the confidence and trust that banks bring and the comfort and innovation that fintechs bring can be a good marriage, it will be a good symbiotic relationship.

Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India, P Vasudevan was speaking at the Global Fintech Fest 2023.

  • Published On Sep 6, 2023 at 04:49 PM IST

Join the community of 2M+ industry professionals

Subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights & analysis.

Download ETBFSI App

  • Get Realtime updates
  • Save your favourite articles

icon g play

icon app store


Scan to download App
bfsi barcode

Share it on social networks