The pilot of digital RMB will be further expanded under the “10 + 1” pattern. Recently, some media reported that the third batch of digital RMB pilot areas in China are about to appear, and Tianjin, Hangzhou, Fuzhou and other areas are expected to be selected.
According to the analysis of many insiders interviewed by the reporter of Securities Daily, through the previous pilot in the “10 + 1” region, the application scenario and technical architecture of digital RMB have been recognized by the market. Regulators, commercial banks and relevant service providers have also accumulated rich experience in this process. At present, the conditions for further expanding the pilot of digital RMB are ripe.
Nevertheless, there are still obstacles to the full deployment of digital RMB, and efforts need to be made to continuously improve the user experience, test and improve the underlying technology, protect data security, and formulate relevant laws, regulations and supporting policies.
pilot area will be expanded
In fact, since the second half of last year, provinces and cities in non pilot areas have been competing for a new round of digital RMB pilot. For example, in February this year, Heilongjiang Province, Henan Province and Fuzhou all mentioned the digital RMB pilot in relevant policies. The implementation opinions of Heilongjiang Province on accelerating the high-quality development of platform economy proposed to actively promote the application of digital RMB pilot in Heilongjiang Province and explore the construction and scene expansion of digital RMB pilot; Henan Province included “striving to carry out digital RMB pilot” in the “14th five year plan” for the development of digital economy and informatization in Henan Province; The special plan for the development of financial industry in the 14th five year plan of Fuzhou also proposes to actively strive for the pilot of digital RMB of the central bank.
Previously, the pilot of digital RMB in the “10 + 1” region has effectively verified the business technology design and system stability, product ease of use and scenario applicability. According to the latest data disclosed by the people’s Bank of China, by the end of 2021, there had been more than 8.0851 million digital RMB pilot scenarios, 261 million personal wallets had been opened, and the transaction amount was 87.565 billion yuan.
Since this year, the pilot action of digital RMB has become more and more intensive and entered the stage of “full test”. On January 4, the digital RMB (pilot version) app was put on the shelves, and the number of downloads has exceeded 10 million times; During the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, digital RMB became a highlight of financial services for the Winter Olympic Games. The pilot of the Winter Olympic Games realized full coverage of seven scenes, and carried out three large-scale digital RMB pilot activities, with 403000 landing scenes and a transaction amount of 9.6 billion yuan.
Wu Qi, executive director of Wuxi Digital Economy Research Institute, told reporters that with the promotion of the first and second batch of pilot areas, especially after the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the digital RMB payment infrastructure has been gradually completed and the application scenarios have become increasingly rich. From the previous focus on C-end users, it has gradually extended to b-end and g-end industries, in industrial Internet, cross-border trade, smart city Public services and other fields will be gradually expanded.
While the digital RMB pilot continues to advance, its operating institutions have also expanded. On the basis of the six major state-owned banks of China, agriculture, industry, construction, transportation and postal savings, a joint-stock bank China Merchants Bank Co.Ltd(600036) and two private banks, Weizhong bank and e-commerce bank, have been added.
In terms of digital RMB promotion, major banks have actively promoted it and achieved remarkable results. For example, during the Spring Festival of the year of the tiger, the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce organized and carried out the activity of “happy purchase of 2022 Spring Festival”. During this period, six pilot banks issued a total of 25 million yuan of digital RMB red envelopes to Shenzhen citizens, covering life services, large supermarkets, catering consumption, sports and tourism and other fields. In addition to operating institutions, small and medium-sized banks are also joining the promotion through the access of designated clearing institutions or through cooperation with designated operating institutions.
At the same time, the promotion of digital RMB has also been placed in the spotlight of the capital market Newland Digital Technology Co.Ltd(000997) , Grg Banking Equipment Co.Ltd(002152) , Guangzhou Kingteller Technology Co.Ltd(002177) and many other listed companies are actively making arrangements. On the one hand, they are carrying out research and development on hardware aspects such as hard wallet, intelligent POS machine and intelligent equipment at bank outlets; On the other hand, actively expand the application scenarios of digital RMB diversification such as smart campus, smart transportation and cross-border payment. For example, Newland Digital Technology Co.Ltd(000997) said on the investor interaction platform on March 2 that the company is actively exploring the technology landing and smart contract application of digital RMB in relevant scenarios.
Tian Lihui, President of the Institute of financial development of Nankai University, told reporters that with the promotion of digital RMB, China will form a new financial ecology and promote the development of relevant industrial chains such as bank IT systems, Payment institutions and acceptance terminals. At the same time, digital RMB will become an important way for financial institutions to obtain customers, promote the digital transformation and upgrading of business, and give birth to new opportunities for peer competition and cooperation. The issuance and circulation of digital RMB has drawn the demand of participating institutions for software and hardware system transformation, and relevant technology enterprises are ushering in significant benefits.
multiple measures to resolve the overall landing resistance
At present, the digital economy has become one of the important driving forces driving China’s economic growth. How to steadily promote the full implementation of digital RMB has also become the focus of the industry.
“At present, there may still be some resistance in the promotion of digital RMB. It may take a long time to develop new payment habits on the enterprise side and individual consumption side in the future.” Sun Yulin, senior researcher of Ouke cloud Chain Research Institute, told reporters.
A person from a large state-owned bank who participated in the research and development of digital RMB also disclosed to the reporter of Securities Daily: “with the gradual increase in the number of institutions joining digital RMB and the different nature of access parties, it is a challenge to our background processing logic and methods. Secondly, there are security problems, and there will be more and more scenes requiring risk control limits and anti ultra vires inspection.”
It is worth mentioning that during the two sessions of the National People’s Congress in 2022, representatives of the members actively made suggestions and suggestions on topics such as digital RMB. Guo Xinming, deputy to the National People’s Congress and President of the Nanjing Branch of the people’s Bank of China, said that it is suggested to revise and refine the relevant contents of the RMB management regulations and other systems in combination with the pilot process of digital RMB research and development. On the basis of clarifying the legal compensation of digital RMB, fully consider the acceptance process and technical requirements of digital RMB, make exceptions or exemptions on the legal compensation of digital RMB, and make specific and clear provisions on the issuance process of digital RMB, anti money laundering, anti counterfeit currency, personal information protection, consumer rights and interests protection and other issues.
Tian Lihui also believes that the current payment infrastructure and basic legal rules for the cross-border flow of digital RMB are missing, and the cross-border flow of digital RMB is facing great challenges.
“It is foreseeable that the pilot work of digital RMB will continue in the future, including the continuous increase in the scope of pilot areas and more and more users opening and using digital RMB wallets.” In sun Yulin’s view, the types of subsequent application scenarios are also expected to become richer. On the one hand, it is gradually expanding from the pilot mainly focusing on banks in the early stage to insurance, securities, funds and other fields; On the other hand, in the payment field subdivided by the financial industry, it will gradually extend from the current pilot scenario of small and high-frequency retail to inter agency large-scale payment and cross-border payment.
