CBDC, ULI adoption gains pace as RBI expands use cases: Rohit Jain

RBI says CBDC and ULI adoption is accelerating as live transactions expand, with new use cases, more lenders and wider state participation driving growth

Adoption of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and the Unified Lending Interface (ULI) is gaining pace, with both platforms already being used for live transactions, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Rohit Jain said at the central bank’s post-monetary policy press conference on Wednesday.

 

Jain said the CBDC is already being used for actual transactions, although it continues to be labelled a pilot as the RBI expands its technology and use cases. The central bank is also working with banks to widen adoption of both CBDC and ULI, while engaging with state governments to promote the lending platform. So far, 12 states have digitised their land records to facilitate ULI adoption.

 

“We are making good progress. The adoption is increasing. They are not pilots, they are actually on the ground being used,” Jain said. “CBDC is actually being used for actual transactions. It is only for namesake that it is a pilot,” he added.

 

He said the RBI is expanding CBDC use cases, including cross-border transactions, government schemes and targeted transfers to specific beneficiary segments, which are expected to drive wider adoption.

 

On ULI, Jain said the RBI is working with banks to expand use cases and remains in constant dialogue with state governments to increase adoption of the platform. “We expect a lot of interest is being shown by different state governments to use the CBDC and the ULI for different schemes,” he said.

 

A total of 64 lenders — 41 banks and 23 non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) — had been onboarded onto the platform in 2025, up from 36 a year earlier. The number of data services available through ULI has also grown to more than 136 from just over 50 a year ago, supporting 12 different loan journeys. These include authentication and verification tools, land records, satellite data, transliteration, property search, dairy insights and credit guarantee-related information. The RBI’s annual report noted that land records from eight states had been integrated with the platform as of December 2024.

 

The RBI launched the retail CBDC in December 2022 as a digital form of sovereign currency issued by the central bank. Initially rolled out in phases, its use cases have steadily expanded to include person-to-person and person-to-merchant transactions, cross-border payments and programmable transfers.

 

Launched in 2023, ULI is the RBI’s digital public infrastructure for credit. Modelled on the success of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), it enables lenders to access verified borrower information from multiple public and private data sources through standardised application programming interfaces (APIs), reduce loan processing time and improve access to credit, particularly in agriculture and other underserved segments.