By
Tolu Ajiboye
April 17th, 2024
In a bid to advance the nationwide adoption of its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the Digital Yuan, about 35 commercial banks in China have integrated support for the new legal tender in their mobile apps.
According to local news reports, the increment in the number of banks supporting the Digital Renminbi complements the earlier efforts by the 6 state-owned banks to create wallets that can aid the commercial usage of the new legal tender.
The banks include small and medium scaled financial institutions and they include joint-stock companies, City banks, and rural co-operatives amongst others. The prominent names includes; CITIC, China Everbright, China Merchants Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Minsheng, Ping An, Guangfa and Zheshang amongst others.
Per the reports, there are two major ways in which the Chinese Commercial Banks and the citizens eventually can access the Digital Renminbi. The first is by accessing it via one of the six state-owned banks, and the second is through a digital clearing system, dubbed “One Point Access” floated by City Bank Clearing and Agricultural Bank of China Clearing.
“Currently, commercial banks other than operating institutions can access the digital renminbi system in two modes. One is through operating institutions, currently the six state-owned banks; the other is through the city bank clearing and agricultural bank clearing to access the digital renminbi system. RMB interconnection platform. In addition, it can also be directly accessed in the early stage”, a person familiar with the matter said.
He also pointed out that as long as the relevant conditions are met, more commercial banks will participate in the digital RMB test.
China All Geared Up to Launch its CBDC
The Chinese government through the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has put a lot of effort into the development of its CBDC, which has notably entered the trial phases. A series of lottery in big Chinese cities including Beijing and Sichuan amongst others. As reported earlier by Coinspeaker, the Beijing subway has started accepting the Digital Yuan from passengers.
The Chinese capital has notably lead the charge in boosting the public acceptance of the Digital Renminbi. A Chinese state-owned commercial bank notably rolled out a feature back in June that will let the digital renminbi be converted to cash at over 3000 Automated Teller Machines (ATM) terminals in the city.
The trials have been going well as the Digital Renminbi is even set to be used at the forthcoming Winter Olympics in 2022. The entirety of the plans to launch the Digital Yuan does not have a set date in view, albeit, the effort is being bolstered by the embrace to the mainstream adoption been given to the project by homegrown tech giants including Tencent Holdings Ltd (HKG: 0700), and Ant Group who have both joined the trials.