Chinese lenders Bocom, CCB explore use of e-yuan digital currency for buying funds, insurance products

Officials at Bank of Communications, China Construction Bank say they are working with fund managers and insurers to explore expanding the e-yuan’s use beyond low-value daily retail payments

The Chinese central bank’s digital currency had reached US$5.3 billion of transactions as of June as it undergoes trials

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The PBOC’s digital yuan is accelerating the world’s second-biggest economy’s journey towards becoming a cashless society. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:30am, 31 Aug 2021Updated: 9:05pm, 31 Aug 2021

Leading state-owned Chinese banks are stepping up their pilot programme for a sovereign digital currency, revealing that they have started exploring ways to enable holders of the so-called e-yuan to buy investment funds and insurance products online.

If successful, this could advance the applicability of the country’s central bank digital currency beyond the low value, daily retail payments laid out in the original blueprint by the People’s Bank of China when it first mooted the idea of a digital currency in 2014.

China Construction Bank said it has started working with Shanghai Tiantian Fund Distribution, a platform owned by financial data services provider East Money, to enable holders of digital yuan to make online fund investments. The collaboration also involves e-commerce giant JD.com, the lender said in its interim results announcement released last Friday.

“We have since 2017 been participating in the research and development of the central bank digital currency, which we view as significant for our payment system due to its ability to enhance payment efficiency,” said Zhang Min, executive vice-president, at the bank’s interim results briefing.

The bank said it has opened 7.23 million digital wallets for individual users, and another 1.19 million for companies. As of June, China Construction Bank had reported a cumulative 28.5 million transactions totalling 18.9 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion) using the digital yuan.

Bank of Communications (Bocom) is exploring the idea of expanding the use of the China’s virtual currency, commonly known as the e-yuan, to fund management and insurance companies, according to executive vice-president Qian Bin.

“China’s central bank digital currency is a form of legal tender, and from the perspective of a commercial bank, it is our obligation to facilitate the development and liquidity of the currency,” said Qian at an interim results briefing last Friday.

“We have made a lot of preparations to ensure the high efficiency and steady operations of the e-yuan system.”