HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, Sept 11: Union Bank of India, a prominent player in India’s public sector banking landscape, announced a groundbreaking development on September 5, 2023. The bank unveiled the interoperability of India’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) under the supervision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Union Bank of India has been at the forefront of innovation by seamlessly integrating its digital e-rupee with the UPI platform, solidifying its position as a pioneer in this domain. With this exciting integration, Union Bank of India’s customers gain the ability to scan any merchant’s UPI QR Code directly from the bank’s Digital e-rupee Wallet. This allows them to initiate secure payments to the merchant directly into their UPI-linked accounts. This innovative feature empowers merchants to accept payments via both UPI and Union Bank’s Digital e-rupee through a single QR Code. This eliminates the need for multiple QR codes for payment collections, streamlining the payment process. Currently, this facility is enabled for Peer-to-Merchant (P2M) and Peer-to-Peer Merchant (P2PM) transactions.
Manimekhalai, the Managing Director and CEO of Union Bank of India, expressed her views on this milestone, stating, “The interoperability of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) with the UPI Platform represents a significant development in India’s payment ecosystem. This seamless integration will encourage more customers to embrace Digital Currency and is poised to increase the number of transactions using CBDC wallets.”
As part of the CBDC program, Union Bank of India has successfully onboarded over 1.30 lakh customers and 15,000 merchants across 26 identified centers. This achievement underlines the bank’s commitment to the digital revolution in the Indian banking sector.
