China’s digital currency will not compete with mobile payment apps WeChat and Alipay, says programme head

  • Currency issued through DCEP can be used in mobile wallets like WeChat Pay, says Mu Changchun, head of the central bank’s digital currency research institute
  • The People’s Bank of China has already found counterfeit digital yuan wallets, Mu says

Coco Fengin BeijingandMasha Borakin Hong Kong
China’s southern tech hub of Shenzhen concluded the country’s largest test of the sovereign digital currency this month after giving out 10 million yuan in red packets. Photo: Bloomberg

China’s Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) will not compete with WeChat Pay and Alipay, the head of the programme clarified for the first time on Sunday. The two digital wallets had a combined 94 per cent share of the country’s mobile payments industry in the second quarter, according to iResearch.

“They don’t belong to the same dimension. WeChat and Alipay are wallets, while the digital yuan is the money in the wallet,” said Mu Changchun, the head of the research institute for digital currency at the People’s Bank of China. He spoke in Shanghai at the 2nd Bund Summit, co-organised by the China Finance 40 Forum.

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