Recently, the people’s Bank of China held a symposium on the pilot work of digital RMB research and development. The meeting called for the orderly expansion of the pilot scope. On the basis of the existing pilot areas, Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, Fuzhou and Xiamen in Fujian Province, and six cities hosting the Asian Games in Zhejiang Province (Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Shaoxing and Jinhua) were added as the pilot areas. Beijing and Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province became the pilot areas after the pilot scenes of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and winter Paralympic Games. Thus, the scope of digital RMB pilot cities has been expanded to 23 cities.
Previously, digital RMB has been piloted in the “10 + 1” pilot areas and scenarios in two batches. Through the test of offline food, housing, transportation, tourism, shopping, entertainment and medicine, the feasibility and reliability of digital RMB related theories, policies, businesses and technologies have been preliminarily verified. According to the data released 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.
It is noteworthy that the central bank Symposium stressed that the pilot of digital RMB research and development should adhere to marketization. In the process of digital RMB development, promotion and popularization, 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 operation.
It is conceivable that on the basis of the success of the pilot in the early stage, the digital RMB coverage scene in the new pilot stage is expected to continue to expand, and the popularization speed will be further accelerated, which will bring new business increment to enterprises related to the industrial chain.
Huaan Securities Co.Ltd(600909) it is estimated that the upgrading of digital RMB software and hardware industry will bring 140 billion yuan of market space, including 5.1 billion yuan of bank core system transformation, 33.9 billion yuan of digital RMB Hard Wallet construction and 19.2 billion yuan of merchant POS equipment upgrading. The market space is broad.
Among them, third-party payment institutions play an important role in the current pilot expansion of digital RMB, including accelerating the upgrading of merchant terminals and systems, so as to expand the scope of merchants that can accept digital RMB. At present, the companies related to this link in the A-share market mainly include Lakala Payment Co.Ltd(300773) , Xgd Inc(300130) , Newland Digital Technology Co.Ltd(000997) , etc.
Lakala Payment Co.Ltd(300773) as one of the leading enterprises in the digital RMB industry earlier, in 2020, it became one of the first institutions to sign a strategic cooperation agreement with the digital currency Research Institute of the people’s Bank of China, truly entered the core experimental field of digital RMB, and has completed the interconnection with the Digital Research Institute of the central bank and six major operators.
According to public information, Lakala Payment Co.Ltd(300773) has upgraded millions of terminals and cut into large supermarkets, national scenic spots, supply chain, insurance payment and other scenes through digital RMB. With the capacity expansion of a new round of digital RMB pilot cities, Lakala Payment Co.Ltd(300773) with the first mover advantage of digital RMB, it can accelerate the expansion of the number of service merchants. In the long run, the expectation that digital RMB can be charged at the merchant end will undoubtedly be the increment of Lakala Payment Co.Ltd(300773) with payment business segment.
In addition, the test of digital RMB in a wider range has brought new topics to the underlying technology and scene penetration of digital RMB. On the basis of accelerating the layout of the merchant end, Lakala Payment Co.Ltd(300773) will touch the b-end enterprise payment with digital RMB, accelerate the trial and research of the application of digital RMB in digital virtual scene, and boost the development of real economy and digital economy.
Based on the pilot expansion of digital RMB, all securities research institutions have given positive market judgment. For listed companies, Shenwan Hongyuan Group Co.Ltd(000166) believes that the central bank’s digital currency is expected to become the main line of financial technology throughout the year, focusing on hardware in the short term, encryption in the medium term and application in the long term. We can pay attention to Chutian Dragon Co.Ltd(003040) , Yusys Technologies Co.Ltd(300674) , Lakala Payment Co.Ltd(300773) , Xgd Inc(300130) and other institutions.
