- Changchun Mu, head of digital currency research at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), underscores the necessity for the digital yuan to be adopted in all retail payment scenarios.
- PBOC aims for seamless integration of the digital yuan with existing electronic payment systems and interbank settlements, further enhancing efficiency at the wholesale level.
Toward Retail Omnipresence: The Digital Yuan Blueprint
Changchun Mu, the spearhead of the digital currency research institute at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), delineated the bank’s evolving strategy for the digital yuan, or e-CNY, in a recent trade forum in Beijing. He emphasized that for the digital yuan to achieve its intended potential, ubiquity in retail payment environments is non-negotiable. Notably, wallet service providers, including titans like WeChat Pay and Alipay as well as traditional commercial banks with mobile apps, need to scrupulously adhere to regulatory compliance and obtain the appropriate financial licenses.
“The first milestone in the evolutionary arc of the digital yuan is its universal adoption across all retail settings,”
Mu stated. He further expanded on the roadmap by highlighting the immediate need for
“standardizing QR code systems at a technical stratum to achieve barcode symbiosis.”
QR codes are instrumental in payment architectures in China, largely dominated by WeChat Pay and Alipay. In laying out the strategy, Mu is essentially advocating for a standardized, interoperable QR ecosystem that would seamlessly integrate the digital yuan.
Integration Beyond Retail: Wholesale and Interbank Dynamics
Contrary to widespread assumptions, Mu clarified that the existing interbank payment and settlement mechanisms are efficacious and don’t necessarily need to be supplanted by the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) systems.
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“The goal is not displacement but seamless integration through extensive interoperability between the e-CNY and current electronic payment avenues, including commercial bank deposits,”
he elaborated.
At the wholesale echelon, the digital yuan is being envisioned not just as another payment tool but as an integrated part of the financial market infrastructure. Mu pinpointed the utility of smart contracts for executing complex financial transactions like “Delivery Versus Payment” and “Payment Versus Payment,” thereby augmenting the efficiency of wholesale payment systems.
Since its pilot launch in late 2019, the digital yuan trials have been rolled out in 26 different locations, encompassing 17 provincial-level cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Suzhou. Despite these inroads, the e-CNY is still in the pilot stages and has yet to achieve broad adoption—a challenge the PBOC is keen to surmount through its comprehensive integration strategy.
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