Do perceived risks and benefits impact trust and willingness to adopt CBDCs?

Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), as a FinTech initiative, has the potential to enhance financial inclusion, increase the speed and efficiency of financial transactions, and reduce the costs associated with traditional payment systems. This study investigates how risks and benefits impact trust and the digital rupee (or CBDC) adoption in India. We use six perceived risk factors and four perceived benefits factors. The willingness to adopt the digital rupee can be significantly predicted by all the constructs except perceived usefulness. The study also shows the partial mediation effect of trust to bridge the impact of perceived risk on willingness. However, perceived ease of use, innovativeness, and inertia do not significantly impact trust to adopt the digital rupee. This study pioneers the literature on behavioral intention toward digital rupee adoption in India. The findings offer important implications for policymakers.