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China’s digital currency goes global as domestic trials expand - SUPCHINA
People’s Bank of China (PBOC) will work with the three other central banks to jointly explore digital currency cross-border payments under the Multiple Central Bank Digital Currency (m-CBDC) Bridge project, which is led by Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Bank of Thailand.
- The four central banks will seek to make cross-border payments more efficient using distributed ledger technology (DLT), which includes databases that are shared and replicated among all the institutions that are involved and record transactions.
- The project will work to “facilitate real-time cross-border foreign exchange payment-versus-payment transactions in a multi-jurisdictional context and on a 24/7 basis,” according to an announcement by Hong Kong’s central bank, HKMA.
China’s central bank has been testing digital yuan aggressively in China since last October.
- The PBOC has sent out (in Chinese) over 150 billion yuan ($23.2 billion) to tens of millions of people in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Beijing, and Chengdu through six public trials.
- Through an online lottery system, citizens of the four cities received virtual red packets worth about 200 yuan ($31) each that they could use to make purchases on JD.com, pay for ride-hailing services on Didi Chuxing, and order food delivery on Meituan.
- Fintech giant Ant Group’s MYBank and Tencent’s WeBank also joined the central bank’s digital yuan pilot program this past week as the trials continue to expand.
- More digital yuan trails are expected during the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.