The digital RMB pilot has ushered in the third expansion.
On April 2, according to the official website of the people’s Bank of China, the people’s Bank of China recently held a symposium on the pilot work of digital RMB research and development to summarize the pilot work of early research and development and arrange the work of the next stage. Yi Gang, President of the people’s Bank of China, and fan Yifei, vice president of the people’s Bank of China, attended and addressed the meeting.
The meeting called for the orderly expansion of the pilot scope, adding six cities hosting the Asian Games in Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Fujian Province, Fuzhou, Xiamen and Zhejiang Province as the pilot areas on the basis of the existing pilot areas, and Beijing and Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province will become the pilot areas after the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and winter Paralympic Games.
pilot area to add 6 more cities
The meeting held that since 2017, the people’s Bank of China, together with all participating institutions and with the strong support of the party committees and governments in the pilot areas, has comprehensively grasped and carefully organized, steadily carried out the pilot, dynamically improved the business technology design, continuously innovated the application scenarios, made efforts to solve the difficult and painful problems of financial services, and preliminarily verified the feasibility and reliability of the theories, policies, businesses and technologies related to digital RMB. At present, digital RMB has formed a number of application modes covering Wuxi Online Offline Communication Information Technology Co.Ltd(300959) , replicable and popularized in the fields of wholesale and retail, catering, culture and tourism, government payment, etc. major pilot projects such as the scenes of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and winter Paralympic Games have been successfully completed. The users, businesses and transaction scale participating in the pilot have increased steadily, and the market has responded well.
The meeting pointed out that with the further promotion of the pilot test, digital RMB R & D faces new situations and problems in highlighting convenience, optimizing inclusiveness, highlighting innovation, ensuring security, reflecting compliance and strengthening sustainability, which need to be further studied and explored.
The meeting stressed that the digital RMB R & D pilot should adhere to the “people’s character” and play a greater role in expanding the coverage of financial services, improving the level of inclusive financial services, helping local economic development, supporting the construction of digital government, improving the quality and efficiency of financial services to the real economy, and improving the business environment. We should adhere to marketization. In the process of the development, promotion and popularization of digital RMB, policy design should fully stimulate the enthusiasm and creativity of financial institutions, science and technology enterprises, local governments and other parties, and encourage competition in promoting the operation. We should adhere to the rule of law, carry out all work in accordance with the law, carry out legal construction in a forward-looking manner, ensure the security of the digital RMB system, grasp the relationship between privacy protection and crime prevention, and deeply study the potential impact on the financial system and other aspects.
The meeting requested that in the next step, all relevant participants should follow the deployment of the 14th five year plan, adhere to the general tone of seeking progress while maintaining stability, assume their respective responsibilities and cooperate with each other to steadily promote the pilot of digital RMB research and development. We will expand the scope of the pilot in an orderly manner. On the basis of the existing pilot areas, we will add six cities hosting the Asian Games in Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Fujian Province and Zhejiang Province as the pilot areas. Beijing and Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province will become the pilot areas after the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and winter Paralympic Games are completed. Adhere to the “two-tier operation” structure, give full play to the advantageous role of the designated operation organization, and strengthen the pilot application and ecosystem construction. Strengthen the construction of safety and risk prevention and control system, improve relevant laws and regulations and standard system, deepen the research on theoretical issues, and constantly consolidate the pilot foundation of digital RMB research and development.
Bank of China actively promotes digital RMB
This is the third round of digital RMB pilot capacity expansion. Previously, the people’s Bank of China carried out digital RMB pilot projects in “10 + 1” pilot areas and scenarios in two batches, including Shenzhen, Suzhou, xiong’an, Chengdu, Shanghai, Hainan, Changsha, Xi’an, Qingdao, Dalian and Winter Olympics scenarios (Beijing and Zhangjiakou), covering retail transactions, living payment, government services and other scenarios.
According to the latest data previously released by the people’s Bank of China, as of December 31, 2021, there were more than 8.0851 million digital RMB pilot scenarios, 261 million personal wallets were opened, and the transaction amount was 87.565 billion yuan.
As the main banks promoting the layout of digital RMB, the six major state-owned banks are the first batch of operating institutions of digital RMB. According to the 2021 annual report data disclosed by the six major banks recently, each company has made great efforts to promote and layout, but the “playing method” has its own emphasis.
The relevant person in charge of ICBC told the Chinese reporter of Securities Times securities firm that as a digital RMB operation organization, ICBC has steadily promoted the pilot work under the guidance of the people’s Bank of China, and has successfully piloted a number of application scenarios in the fields of smart people’s livelihood, digital government, commercial empowerment, Rural Revitalization and interbank agency, forming a comprehensive personal and corporate digital RMB wallet product system, working with partners such as China Mobile on SIM card Carry out business innovation in 5g, smart contract and other fields, and jointly build a digital RMB ecosystem with dozens of peers.
“With the orderly expansion of the pilot scope, ICBC will implement strategies such as enabling digital economy, Inclusive Finance and Rural Revitalization. In a new batch of pilot areas, ICBC will make business pilot plans according to local conditions, further explore application mode innovation, reduce payment costs, make comprehensive preparations from the aspects of operation system, professional team and customer service, and strive to play a greater role in the construction of digital RMB ecosystem.” Relevant person in charge of ICBC.
According to the annual report of CCB, the bank participated in many digital RMB red envelope activities, organized a series of preferential activities, and invited customers to participate in the pilot test of digital RMB; It also carried out cooperation in the field of digital RMB with a number of joint-stock banks, urban commercial banks and rural commercial banks, deployed corporate digital RMB wallets, and realized digital wallet collection, transfer and query services.
ABC has set up a financial science and technology innovation center in xiong’an new area to carry out research and application promotion in frontier fields of financial science and technology. At the same time, a digital RMB engineering office was established to strengthen the professional strength of digital RMB R & D and application.
As the only bank partner for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games and the winter Paralympic Games, BOC undertakes the pilot service of digital RMB within the Winter Olympic security red line, and provides a number of services such as account opening, mobile payment, local and foreign currency cash, digital RMB, domestic acceptance of overseas bank cards and so on for short-term visitors to China for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
