Our reporter Wu Shan
Trainee reporter Zhang Bo Yang Jie
The digital renminbi pilot will usher in further expansion under the "10+1" pattern.
A few days ago, some media reported that the third batch of digital renminbi pilot areas in the country will be unveiled soon, and Tianjin, Hangzhou, Fuzhou and other areas are expected to be selected.
A number of industry insiders interviewed by reporters from "Securities Daily" said that through the previous pilots in the "10+1" region, the application scenarios and technical architecture of digital RMB have been recognized by the market, and regulatory authorities, commercial banks and related service providers are in the market. A wealth of experience has also been accumulated in this process, and the conditions for further expansion of the pilot program of the digital renminbi are now ripe.
Nevertheless, there is still resistance to the full rollout of the digital renminbi, and efforts are still needed to continuously improve the user experience, test and improve the underlying technology, protect data security, and formulate relevant laws and regulations and supporting policies.
Pilot areas will welcome expansion
In fact, since the second half of last year, provinces and cities in non-pilot areas have been racing for a new round of digital renminbi pilots.
For example, in February this year, Heilongjiang Province, Henan Province, and Fuzhou City all mentioned the pilot of digital renminbi in relevant policies. Digital renminbi pilot construction and scenario expansion; Henan Province has included “strive to carry out digital renminbi pilots” in the “14th Five-Year Plan for Digital Economy and Informatization Development of Henan Province”; " also proposed to actively strive for the central bank's digital renminbi pilot.
Previously, the pilot of digital renminbi in the "10+1" region has effectively verified business technology design and system stability, product usability and scene applicability.
According to the latest data disclosed by the People's Bank of China, as of the end of 2021, there have been more than 8.0851 million digital RMB pilot scenarios, a total of 261 million personal wallets have been opened, and the transaction amount is 87.565 billion yuan.
Since the beginning of this year, the pilot activities of digital renminbi have become more and more intensive, and it has entered the stage of "full test".
On January 4th, the digital RMB (pilot version) app was launched, and the number of downloads has exceeded 10 million times; during the Beijing Winter Olympics, the digital RMB became a highlight of the Winter Olympics financial services, and the Winter Olympics scenario pilot achieved seven major projects. The scenarios are fully covered, and 3 large-scale digital RMB pilot activities have been carried out, with 403,000 landing scenarios and a transaction amount of 9.6 billion yuan.
Wu Qi, executive director of Wuxi Digital Economy Research Institute, told reporters that with the advancement of the first and second batch of pilot areas, especially after the Beijing Winter Olympics, the digital RMB payment infrastructure has gradually been completed, and the application scenarios have become more and more abundant. From the previous focus on C-end users, it has gradually extended to the B-end and G-end industries, and will gradually expand in the fields of industrial Internet, cross-border trade, smart cities, and public services.
While the digital renminbi pilot continues to advance, its operating agencies have also expanded. On the basis of the six state-owned banks of China, Agriculture, Industry, Construction, Communications, and Postal Savings, the joint-stock bank China Merchants Bank, WeBank, Netcom has been added. Commercial Bank and two private banks.
In the promotion of digital renminbi, major banks have actively promoted and achieved remarkable results.
For example, during the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger, the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Commerce organized and launched the "2022 Chinese New Year Happy Shopping" activity, among which 6 pilot banks distributed a total of 25 million yuan of digital RMB red envelopes to Shenzhen residents, covering life services, large supermarkets, and restaurants. consumption, cultural and sports tourism and other fields.
In addition to operating institutions, small and medium-sized banks are also joining the promotion through designated clearing institutions or through cooperation with designated operating institutions.
At the same time, the promotion of digital renminbi has also been placed under the spotlight of the capital market.
A large number of listed companies such as Newland, Radio and Television Express, and Royal Bank are actively deploying. Diversified application scenarios of digital renminbi such as cross-border payment.
For example, Newland stated on the investor interaction platform on March 2 that the company is actively exploring the technical implementation and smart contract application of digital renminbi in related scenarios.
Tian Lihui, dean of Nankai University's Institute of Financial Development, told reporters that with the promotion of digital renminbi, my country will form a new financial ecosystem and promote the development of related industrial chains such as banking IT systems, payment institutions, and acceptance terminals.
At the same time, digital renminbi will become an important way for financial institutions to acquire customers, promote the digital transformation and upgrading of business, and create new opportunities for competition and collaboration in the industry.
The issuance and circulation of digital renminbi has attracted the needs of participating institutions for the transformation of software and hardware systems, and related technology companies are ushering in major benefits.
Multiple measures to resolve comprehensive landing resistance
At present, the digital economy has become one of the important driving forces for my country's economic growth, and how to steadily promote the full implementation of the digital renminbi has also become the focus of industry discussions.
"At present, there may be some resistance in the promotion of digital renminbi, and new payment habits may take a long time to develop in the future of enterprises and individual consumers." Sun Yulin, a senior researcher at Ouke Cloud Chain Research Institute, told reporters Express.
A person from a large state-owned bank involved in the research and development of digital renminbi also revealed to the "Securities Daily" reporter: "As the number of institutions joining the digital renminbi gradually increases and the nature of the access parties is different, it is a challenge to our background processing logic and method. Secondly, , as well as security issues, there will be more and more scenarios that require risk control limits and anti-oversight inspections.”
It is worth mentioning that during the National Two Sessions in 2022, the representatives actively offered suggestions and suggestions on topics such as digital RMB.
Guo Xinming, deputy to the National People's Congress and president of the Nanjing Branch of the People's Bank of China, said that it is recommended to revise and refine the relevant content of the system such as the RMB management regulations in conjunction with the pilot process of digital RMB research and development.
On the basis of clarifying the legal compensability of digital renminbi, fully consider the acceptance process and technical requirements of digital renminbi, make exceptions or exemptions for the legal compensability of digital renminbi, and discuss the issuance process of digital renminbi, anti-money laundering, anti-counterfeit currency, Personal information protection, consumer rights protection and other issues have made specific and clear regulations.
Tian Lihui also believes that the current payment infrastructure and basic legal rules for the cross-border flow of digital renminbi are lacking, and the cross-border flow of digital renminbi is facing huge challenges.
"It is foreseeable that the pilot work of digital renminbi will continue for a period of time in the future, including the continuous increase in the scope of pilot areas and the opening and use of digital renminbi wallets by more and more users." In Sun Yulin's view, follow-up applications The types of scenarios are also expected to become more abundant. On the one hand, it will gradually expand from the pilot mainly based on banks in the early stage to the fields of insurance, securities, and funds; The pilot of high-frequency retail scenarios has gradually extended to scenarios such as inter-institutional large-value payments and cross-border payments.
(Securities Daily)