 "Pine Labs partners ICICI Bank to enable Digital Rupee on PoS terminals")
Merchant commerce platform Pine Labs announced the acceptance of the digital Rupee on its PoS (point-of-sale) terminals in partnership with ICICI Bank. The technology integration between the two entities will now support Digital Rupee acceptance at Pine Labs’ point-of-sale terminals across key retail outlets in Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Pine Labs’ execution of the Digital Rupee payment process is completely digital via dynamic QR (quick response) built within its smart Android PoS terminals.
“CBDC (central bank digital currency) and Digital Rupee open up exciting opportunities,” said B Amrish Rau, chief executive officer of Pine Labs. “If implemented correctly, it can accelerate the migration from paper-based currency to digital. Pine Labs is happy to partner with ICICI Bank in launching CBDC as a payment option under this pilot run by the RBI.”
Bijith Bhaskar, head, digital channels and partnerships, ICICI Bank, said that India is among the select few countries globally to have its own digital currency.
“The Digital Rupee, which is a tokenised digital version of the Indian Rupee, is a resilient, safe and additional avenue to users for making payments,” said Bhasker. “Increased acceptance of Digital Rupee would hasten its adoption among customers.”
He also said that the partnership with Pine Labs would present a seamless payment option to the users and improve the operational efficiency of merchants with Pine Labs PoS terminals.
As reported by Business Standard, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is conducting a pilot to test the CBDC in the retail and wholesale segment. The pilot for the CBDC wholesale was started on November 1, 2022, while the pilot for the retail segment was launched on December 1, 2022.