Digital Rupee by UBI – Accessible CBDC App Qorus-Infosys Finacle Banking Innovation Awards 2025

Concept and Objectives: The Digital Rupee by UBI app is a secure digital wallet for India’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), designed to ensure accessibility for all, especially visually impaired users. The objective was to bridge the accessibility gap in digital banking, enabling seamless, independent transactions for persons with disabilities (PwDs) and senior citizens. Further, one of the aim is also towards Financial inclusion of persons with disabilities (PwDs) and senior citizens to make them a part of financial ecosystem. Also, CBDC in its own provides varied benefits for financial landscape. Some of these benefits are listed as under: 1. It is User specific, i.e. the users type, quantum of transactions. There are two primary types of CBDCs: • Retail CBDCs: They are designed for the purpose of everyday transactions by individuals and businesses. • Wholesale CBDCs: They are designed for the purpose of large-scale transfers and settlements for financial institutions. 2. Economic Stability: CBDC can play a vital role in strengthening economic stability by providing the central bank with improved tools for implementing monetary policies efficiently. Being a digital form of currency, CBDC ensures trust and transparency in the financial system. It can facilitate faster, more secure, and cost-effective transactions, while also enhancing the central bank's ability to respond swiftly to economic changes. 3. Lower Transaction Costs: With physical/fiat currency, there are several components, raw materials, processes & intermediaries, handling etc which involves costs at all levels. And, there is trading cost involved also. In the aspect of transaction costs, CBDC is beneficial due to its feature of less to negligible involvement of complex components, processes, intermediaries. As CBDC is digital in nature, only two main nodes are part of this system, i.e. Government & User (can be individual or business). So, CBDC do not require intermediaries or handling. 4. Reduce Counterfeit risk & frauds: A major issue faced globally by all economies with physical/fiat currency is counterfeit currencies. These cause substantial losses monetary, fiscally and brings economies to instability. With, the help of CBDC, these issues can be solved to a large extent. 5. CBDC tenacity is long and does not involve high costs of demonetisation which is not the case with fiat currency. 6. Seamless Payment Experience for Users: The CBDC app launched by our bank is designed with user convenience in mind. It integrates the familiar and widely-used UPI payment system, allowing users to make secure, instant, and cost-free transactions with ease. This integration not only enhances the digital payment experience but also ensures a smooth transition for users adopting CBDC, combining the reliability of central bank-backed currency with the speed and simplicity of everyday digital payments.

Reasons Behind: According to WHO (World Health Organization) factsheet, around 16% of World population i.e. around 1.3 billion people have significant disability. This population is the largest minority group as claimed by UNDESD (United Nations Department of Economic & Social Affairs Disability). In, India around 2.68 Cr people are living with a major disability. Millions of visually impaired Indians face barriers in accessing digital banking. Union Bank recognized this gap and aimed to create an inclusive CBDC platform, aligning with its legacy of accessible banking (e.g., Talking ATMs, accessible debit cards).

State of Competition: Although several banks have launched CBDC apps, none had fully integrated accessibility features for visually impaired users—positioning UBI’s solution as the first of its kind in the Indian market.

Sources of Inspiration: This initiative draws inspiration from Union Bank’s longstanding commitment to accessible banking and its alignment with global best practices in digital accessibility. A key motivation was to empower Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) and senior citizens by introducing them to a more secure, transparent, and low-cost financial ecosystem. Unlike fiat currency, which poses challenges in tracking and record-keeping, Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) offers a digital, systematic, and easily auditable framework. This not only enhances financial transparency but also strengthens inclusion and trust in the banking system.

Departments Involved: Digitization, Accessibility Cell (Union Access), IT, Product Development and external technology partners. Main Results So Far: - Promotion of the digital rupee to new PwDs and visually impaired customers. - Overwhelmingly positive feedback from visually impaired users. - Institutionalization of accessibility culture. - Industry recognition. - Achieving regulatory and disability laws compliance.