Dong ximiao (chief researcher of qinnong bank and part-time researcher of Financial Research Institute of Fudan University)
2022 will be an important year in the development history of digital RMB. On the first working day of 2022 (January 4), the digital RMB (pilot version) app was officially launched in major app stores, setting off a wave of download boom. On January 23, the digital RMB expression package went online quietly, attracting attention again. In the new year, the digital RMB will move from a Chinese scenario to an international occasion. The pilot application areas are expected to be further expanded and will play a more active role in serving the real economy and facilitating people’s livelihood.
From the start of research and development in 2014 to the formation of the “10 + 1” pilot pattern, digital RMB has gradually become a trend. This is not only the inevitable requirement of the evolution of monetary form, but also the internal demand of the development of digital economy. In 2021, digital RMB has taken a big step in pilot application. By the end of 2021, there were more than 8.085 million digital RMB pilot scenarios, 260 million personal wallets were opened, and the transaction amount was 87.57 billion yuan. From the perspective of personal wallets, there were only more than 20.87 million by the end of June 2021, jumped to 140 million on October 22, and more than 260 million by the end of the year. In the last two months, it almost doubled, and the opening speed was significantly accelerated. This shows that the digital RMB is increasingly recognized and welcomed by the public and began to “fly into the homes of ordinary people”.
Digital RMB is a digital RMB cash. It is China’s legal tender and has irreplaceable explicit and implicit value. From the perspective of explicit value, digital RMB, as the “new infrastructure” in China’s digital economy era, will reconstruct China’s currency and payment system on the basis of deconstructing many challenges outside China: provide a digital currency with stable currency value and unlimited legal compensation, enhance the fairness and inclusiveness of the currency and payment system, and effectively maintain financial stability and prevent financial risks. In addition, digital RMB has outstanding implicit value: better protect users’ privacy and information security; Better achieve the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutralization; Better enhance the image and status of RMB. In short, digital RMB has both prominent explicit value and more implicit value. It is an important infrastructure for the development of China’s digital finance and digital economy. It is of great significance in facilitating people’s livelihood, reducing transaction costs and improving economic efficiency.
In the new year, digital RMB will show new trends and new weather in four aspects: application scenarios, ecosystem, pilot areas and use functions.
From the perspective of application scenarios, the Beijing Winter Olympics will expand the use scenarios of digital RMB in international occasions. In the pilot areas, the digital RMB is constantly advancing towards full scene coverage, from the current retail end such as clothing, food, housing and transportation to many scenes such as wholesale end and government end. The Beijing Winter Olympics scene is the first pilot application of digital RMB with the participation of foreigners, which is of great significance. In Winter Olympic venues, hotels and other places, overseas personnel in need can voluntarily choose small and anonymous digital RMB payment methods to meet their anonymous payment needs. Digital RMB products are abundant, and foreigners can choose hard wallets that meet their daily use habits; You can also download digital RMB app in China and open four types of anonymous wallets with overseas mobile phone numbers. If the digital RMB is successfully used in the Winter Olympics, it will help to improve the international image and status of the digital RMB.
From the perspective of ecosystem, the digital RMB ecosystem dominated by the central bank and participated by many parties is taking shape. Digital RMB adopts a two-tier operation structure of central bank and commercial banks. At present, nine commercial banks are directly engaged in digital RMB operation as operation institutions, and the active participation of technology companies, Payment institutions, local governments and other industrial parties will help to improve the digital RMB ecological system. Recently, meituan platform took the lead in opening digital RMB payment in the whole scene. Compared with supporting digital RMB only in limited businesses and scenes, the opening of the whole scene will help accelerate the pilot promotion of digital RMB and promote the interconnection in the payment field.
From the perspective of pilot areas, the pilot is expected to expand, and more users will be able to experience digital RMB. Digital RMB was first piloted in Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou and xiong’an new area, followed by pilot areas and Winter Olympic Games scenes in Shanghai, Hainan, Changsha, Xi’an, Qingdao and Dalian, forming the current “10 + 1” pilot pattern. At present, only in the “10 + 1” pilot areas and scenarios can the digital RMB app be registered and used. After the Beijing Winter Olympics, the pilot area of digital RMB is expected to be further expanded. More regions join the pilot, which will help to carry out a larger scale test and application of digital RMB, test the performance of digital RMB system in depth, and help more users experience the charm of digital RMB in advance. The Hangzhou Asian Games will be held in September 2022. The Asian Games scene should be included in the pilot scope, and the digital RMB should be tested again for foreigners after the Winter Olympics.
From the perspective of using functions, wallet carriers and functions will be richer, and cross-border payment may make progress. In addition to the mobile digital wallet, digital RMB can also have a variety of hardware carriers such as cards, watches, gloves, bracelets, badges and so on; From the use function, in addition to being directly used for payment, it can also be exchanged with RMB cash through ATM. Digital RMB is mainly positioned as China’s small retail payment, but it can also play an active role in cross-border payment. In February 2021, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority of China, the Bank of Thailand, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates and the digital currency Research Institute of the Central Bank of China jointly launched the digital currency bridge research project of multilateral central banks to explore improving the efficiency of cross-border payment; Under the trend of integration of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, the cross-border application of digital RMB in Hong Kong and Macao may also be accelerated. However, digital RMB cross-border payment needs to improve institutional arrangements, which should be actively and steadily promoted.
