China digital currency: e-CNY rollouts expand to Hangzhou and Chongqing as Chinese central bank seeks broad support for its push to go cashless
- The e-CNY will be rolled out to Chongqing, Tianjin, Hangzhou and Guangzhou
- The digital currency has already been tried out in Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Suzhou, Xiong’an, Chengdu, Hainan, Changsha, Xi’an, Qingdao and Dalian
China will expand the trial of its sovereign digital currency to a number of Chinese cities including Chongqing, Tianjin, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, as the central bank works on incentives for banks, technology firms and local authorities to take part in its e-CNY.
The decision was made at a People’s Bank of China (PBOC) meeting on March 31, according to a statement published by the central bank on Saturday. It is the PBOC’s first-ever symposium on digital currency, where the central bank’s governor Yi Gang spoke, in a sign of escalated support for the digital yuan.
The programme will cover Fuzhou and Xiamen in Fujian province, and five cities in Zhejiang province that will host the 2022 Asian Games, namely Ningbo, Wenzhou, Shaoxing, Jinhua and Huzhou.
China’s e-CNY experiment, which generally involved giving cash reward to consumers to spur usage and asking merchants to accept e-CNY payments, have demonstrated the initial feasibility of the digital sovereign currency, but additional research and exploration are needed in security, compliance and potential impact on the existing banking system, the central bank said.
“Policies must be designed to stimulate creativity and enthusiasm among the banks, technology firms and the local government in the development, promotion and proliferation of the digital yuan,” the central bank said. “In the process of promotion, competition should be encouraged.”