The people's Bank of China recently held a symposium on the pilot work of E-CNY research and development. The meeting called for steadily promoting the pilot research and development of E-CNY. China will expand the scope of the pilot in an orderly manner. On the basis of the existing pilot areas, six additional pilot areas, including Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Fuzhou and Xiamen, and cities of Zhejiang Province hosting the Asian Games, are added to the existing pilot areas. Beijing and Zhangjiakou of Hebei Province will be turned into pilot areas after the end of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and winter Paralympic Games.
Previously, the People's Bank of China has launched the pilot program of E-CNY in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong'an, Chengdu, Shanghai, Hainan, Changsha, Xi'an, Qingdao, Dalian and other places as well as in scenarios of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. As of December 31, 2021, there have been more than 8.0851 million E-CNY pilot scenarios, 261 million personal wallets have been opened, and the transaction amount is 87.565 billion Chinese yuan. At the beginning of this year, the E-CNY app (pilot version) was launched in major app stores.
According to the symposium, a batch of online and offline, replicable and propagable application models of E-CNY have been formed in wholesale and retail, catering and tourism, government affairs payment and other fields. Major pilot projects such as the scenarios of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and the Winter Paralympic Games have been a complete success. The scale of users, merchants and transactions participating in the pilot has increased steadily and the market has responded well. “On the basis of the success of the preliminary pilot, the further acceleration of the popularization of E-CNY will enable the E-CNY to cover more retail and life service scenarios faster, so as to enable the E-CNY to serve the real economy and people's lives more quickly and promote the increase of the inclusiveness and availability of the E-CNY on a larger scale.” Wang Pengbo, a senior financial analyst at Broadcom Consulting, said.
From the perspective of ecosystem, the E-CNY ecosystem dominated by the People’s Bank of China and participated by many parties is taking shape. At present, nine commercial banks have directly engaged in E-CNY operation as operating institutions. In addition, as of August 12, 2021, 24 urban commercial banks have accessed the E-CNY interconnection platform through city commercial bank clearing, and many other banks intend to access the E-CNY interconnection platform through city commercial bank clearing. Technology companies, payment institutions and local governments have also actively participated in helping to improve the E-CNY ecosystem.
The symposium stressed that the pilot program of the research and development of E-CNY shall be characterized by the public nature 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. China will adhere to the principle of marketization, and in the course of developing, promoting and popularizing E-CNY, the design of policies should fully stimulate the enthusiasm and creativity of financial institutions, high-tech enterprises, local governments and other parties, and encourage competition in promoting the operation of the E-CNY.
