China's Digital Yuan Operator Count Reaches 30 as PBOC Adds Eight Banks
Key Takeaways
- •The People's Bank of China has added eight banks, including Ping An Bank, Hengfeng Bank and Bank of Shanghai, as digital yuan operating institutions, bringing the total to 30.
- •The newly authorized lenders will connect to the PBOC's digital yuan system and roll out e-CNY services after finishing operational and technical preparations.
- •This year's additions, which follow 12 institutions joining in April, have widened household and business access to the e-CNY beyond the largest state-owned banks that dominated the original operator list.
- •Cumulative e-CNY transactions stood at roughly 7 trillion yuan (about $1 trillion) as of mid-2024, covering merchant payments, public utilities and government services.
- •The PBOC said it will keep expanding the operator network to promote competition and broaden access to the digital currency.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has added eight banks to its digital yuan network, raising the total number of e-CNY operating institutions to 30.
The newly authorized lenders — Ping An Bank, Hengfeng Bank, China Bohai Bank, Bank of Shanghai, Bank of Hangzhou, Huishang Bank, Bank of Changsha and Guangxi Beibu Gulf Bank — will begin offering e-CNY services after completing operational and technical preparations, according to a Xinhua report published Monday on the government's website.
The eight institutions will be connected to the PBOC's digital yuan system before rolling out services to customers.
Operating institutions form the distribution tier of the two-tier e-CNY system: the PBOC issues the digital currency to authorized operators, which in turn open wallets for customers and provide exchange and payment services. The initial roster was dominated by the largest state-owned lenders — among them Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank — so this year's additions have widened the channels through which households and businesses can access the currency beyond the biggest national banks.
The expansion follows the addition of 12 institutions in April, when city commercial banks joined the operator list. Before this year's additions, only 10 banks were authorized operators, with Industrial Bank the last to join in 2022.
Dong Ximiao, chief researcher at Merchants Union Consumer Finance, said the new operators could fill gaps in services for regional small and medium-sized enterprises and cross-border trade. Cross-border applications have been a parallel track of the e-CNY program: the PBOC's Digital Currency Research Institute has taken part in Project mBridge, a multi-central-bank pilot for cross-border payments that has also involved the monetary authorities of Hong Kong, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
The PBOC began researching a digital currency in 2014 and launched pilots in late 2019. Since then, China has expanded the e-CNY into merchant payments, public utilities and government services, with cumulative transactions reaching about 7 trillion yuan (roughly $1 trillion) as of mid-2024, according to figures cited by PBOC officials. The e-CNY pilot remains among the most advanced retail central bank digital currency projects in the world; the European Central Bank is still in its preparation phase for a potential digital euro, and the U.S. Federal Reserve has said it would not issue a digital dollar without congressional support.
The central bank said it would continue expanding the operator network to promote competition and broaden access to the digital currency.
