RBI
Reserve Bank of India preparing to trial a CBDC with public sector banks and fintechs
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is in talks with fintech companies and state-controlled banks about a trial run of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), local publication Moneycontrol reported on Sept. 5. An unnamed public sector bank official told the publication that the trial may precede an RBI launch of a CBDC this fiscal year. U.S.-based financial services company FIS was mentioned as one of the fintech companies with which the RBI is consulting. FIS senior director Julia Demidova confirmed to Moneycontrol that, “FIS has had various engagements with the RBI […] and, of course, our connected ecosystem could be extended to the RBI to experiment various CBDC options.” FIS announced the launch of its CBDC Virtual Lab on Aug. 25. The company was already active in the CBDC sphere as ...
RBI warns of crypto ‘dollarization’ of Indian economy
Officials from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have reportedly sounded the alarm bells again over crypto adoption, which they claim will ultimately lead to the “dollarization” of the local economy. According to a Monday report from the Indian branch of the Economic Times — which cited unnamed sources — the RBI’s concerns are focused on U.S. dollar-dominated cryptocurrencies taking away market share from the Indian rupee. The publication notes that RBI officials, along with its governor Shaktikanta Das, provided a briefing to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance this week. In it, they took a very skeptical stance toward crypto’s potential influence on the financial system. An unnamed official is quoted as saying: “Almost all cryptocurrencies are dollar-denominated and issued by f...
Coinbase suspends crypto payment services days after India launch
The largest US-based crypto exchange Coinbase has stopped payment services through United Payments Interface (UPI) on its platform for Indian users just three days after its launch in the South Asian subcontinent. The UPI is the payment portal governed by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), which facilitates buy orders on Coinbase’s India services. The exchange has already updated its payment method information on its website for Indian users, which urges users to try Immediate Payment Service (IMP) to place sell orders. The NPCI is a special division of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), under the Ministry of Finance. Financial news outlet Business Standard reported on April 11 that Coinbase stated that it would work to remedy the situation in India with the appropriate regula...
RBI seemingly wants to ban cryptocurrencies, but not for the reasons you might think
On Thursday, the Reserve Bank of India, or RBI, the country’s central bank, published a critical bulletin regarding the cryptocurrency industry. While the report praised the innovative distributed ledger technology associated with digital currencies, the RBI dismissed arguments calling for the regulation of such assets and called for an outright ban. RBI’s core concerns were related to cryptocurrencies threatening the country’s financial sovereignty. The RBI wrote: “Historically, private currencies have resulted in instability and therefore, have evolved into fiat currencies over centuries. The retrograde step back to private currencies cannot be taken simply because technology allows it without considering the dislocation it causes to society’s leg...
RBI deputy governor: banning crypto ‘most advisable choice’
T. Rabi Sankar from the Reserve Bank of India compared cryptocurrency to ponzi schemes and said that banning them, not regulating them, would be the “most advisable choice” for the Indian government. Sankar, the deputy governor for the RBI, told audiences at a keynote address on Feb. 14 that “We have also seen that cryptocurrencies are not amenable to definition as a currency, asset or commodity.” “Cryptocurrencies are not currencies, or financial assets or real assets or even digital assets. Therefore, it cannot be regulated by any financial sector regulator. It is not possible to regulate something that one cannot define.” Sankar feels that regulating crypto would ultimately be condoning its use as a store of value and even a currency in some cases. Merely regulating it could...
