China digital currency: push to ‘prudently advance’, improve design of e-yuan, central bank governor says

Since the roll-out of a pilot programme of the digital yuan in late 2019, digital yuan transactions have reached 62 billion yuan (US$9.7 billion)

About 1.6 million merchants across a wide range of businesses accept China’s central bank digital currency

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The digital yuan – developed by the central bank and now under trial in a dozen cities – adopts a two-tier structure, where the central bank issues the digital currency to authorised commercial banks, which then exchanges and circulates it to the public. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 5:55pm, 9 Nov 2021Updated: 7:09pm, 9 Nov 2021

China will continue to advance the development of its central bank digital currency and improve its design, People’s Bank of China (PBOC) governor Yi Gang said on Tuesday.

China is a front-runner in the global race to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) and is testing a digital yuan, or eCNY, in major cities including Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai, but has not set a timetable for its official roll-out.

Going forward, we will continue to prudently advance [research and development] of the eCNY, improve its design and use

Yi Gang

“Going forward, we will continue to prudently advance [research and development] of the eCNY, improve its design and use,” Yi said via video at a Bank of Finland event.

China will improve the privacy protection and anti-counterfeiting features and increase its interoperability with existing payments tools, Yi said.

China will also test the eCNY’s impact on its monetary policy and financial markets, he added.

Yi said the PBOC attaches great importance to the issue of personal information protection, as CBDC issuers have to balance the need between safeguarding privacy and preventing crimes.

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