India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have announced they collaborated to conduct pilots jointly on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
The collaboration was announced through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) in Abu Dhabi.
The pilots will explore the interoperability between the CBDCs of the central banks of the two nations.
- The tests will include cross-border CBDC transactions of remittances and trade through a bilateral CBDC bridge between two countries.
- The collaboration will also contain a proof-of-concept (PoC) that will be jointly conducted.
India has been conducting a CBDC pilot since December 2022 in 15 cities with over 50,000 customers and 10,000 merchants.
- The country is expected to put its CBDC to common use by the end of this year.
