HDFC Bank showcases Digital Rupee use cases for retail, corporate payments
Hyderabad, Sept 23 (TNT): HDFC Bank has showcased multiple use cases of India’s Digital Rupee, including credit-card reward redemption, digital gift vouchers, corporate allowances, merchant payments and offline transactions, highlighting its potential for wider use in everyday retail and corporate payments.
The initiatives, unveiled at an industry forum last week, are aimed at demonstrating practical applications of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), with a focus on programmability, compliance and accessibility.
Under the proposed credit-card reward redemption facility, customers will be able to redeem reward points against Digital Rupee for purchases across categories such as dining, fuel, apparel and electronics, including usage of the full value down to the last paise.
The bank will also offer Digital Rupee gift vouchers as part of customer promotional campaigns.
Once a qualifying event occurs, the voucher will be automatically loaded into the customer’s HDFC Bank Digital Rupee wallet and can be used by scanning UPI QR codes at merchants.
For corporate customers, HDFC Bank is developing a Digital Rupee Corporate Portal through its Corporate Net-banking platform, enabling organisations to disburse meal, fuel and travel allowances and reimbursements directly in Digital Rupee.
Programmable payouts will restrict the use of funds to their intended purposes and reduce reconciliation requirements.
The bank said its Digital Rupee wallets will also be available on BHIM, enabling customers to make UPI-style payments directly from their CBDC wallets and expanding merchant acceptance.
In another proposed application, customers will be able to make offline Digital Rupee payments onboard flights by tapping their phones on HDFC Bank POS devices to pay for food, beverages and seat upgrades without internet connectivity.
Ashish Parthasarathy, Group Head, Branch Banking, Payments, Treasury, Liability Products, Marketing, Virtual Channels and Infrastructure, HDFC Bank, said the Digital Rupee combines the trust of sovereign money with programmability, transparency and stronger controls.
Rajanish Prabhu, Senior EVP, HDFC Bank, said wider adoption of Digital Rupee would be driven by scale and everyday utility by integrating it into familiar payment journeys such as UPI, merchant payments, rewards, employee benefits and offline transactions.
The bank said the Digital Rupee complements UPI by providing programmability, compliance and transparency, with potential applications across retail and wholesale payment ecosystems.
TNT TS
