Foreign media: India's central bank is in discussions with four state-owned banks on an internal trial of the digital rupee

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is in discussions with four state banks - State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India and Bank of Baroda - for an internal pilot of the digital rupee, Ledger Insights reported on Sept 6, citing sources. In addition, the RBI is working with other service providers and fintech companies, including fintech giant FIS, which recently launched a CBDC lab, to enable experimentation by the central bank and other ecosystem players. The lab includes features such as payments, programmable currencies and offline payments. BlockBeats previously reported that the RBI plans to issue the digital rupee, a digital version of the physical cash issued by the RBI, by the first quarter of 2023, which will be backed by the sovereign.