The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that it is looking into issuing its own central bank digital currency (CBDC), after a meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), according to a Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies released Thursday, April 5.
RBI has established an inter-departmental group to investigate the potential advantages and feasibility of its CBDC, which will submit its findings in a report in June 2018, the statement says.
“Technological innovations, including virtual currencies, have the potential to improve the efficiency and inclusiveness of the financial system,” RBI Deputy Governor B P Kanungo told The Times Of India Thursday.
The Reserve Bank’s inquiry into a CBDC emerged even as it announced it was prohibiting all regulated entities from providing services to any users, traders or holders of cryptocurrencies, as Cointelegraph reported yesterday.
RBI’s position — pro state-issed cryptocurrency and anti decentralized cryptocurrency — represents a broader trend among international central banks as they move in to police the digital frontier.
One solution to central banks’ potential concerns like money laundering is the co-optation of Blockchain tech by the institutional behemoths themselves, as Kanungo himself emphasized yesterday:
Read more:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/reserve-bank-of-india-considers-central-bank-issued-digital-currency
