On April 2, the People's Bank of China announced that it had announced an orderly expansion of the scope of the digital RMB pilot program at the symposium on the digital RMB research and development pilot work held on March 31: adding Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Guangdong, and Fujian. Fuzhou City, Xiamen City, and 6 cities in Zhejiang Province that host the Asian Games will serve as pilot areas. Beijing and Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province will be converted into pilot areas after the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics scenarios are completed.

  Experts believe that the time is ripe for the expansion of the digital renminbi pilot, and it is time to increase the pilot areas in an orderly manner.

At present, digital renminbi has formed a number of application models covering online and offline, replicable and popularized in the fields of wholesale and retail, catering, cultural tourism, and government affairs payment.

The pilot is progressing in an orderly manner

  The "14th Five-Year Plan" and the outline of the long-term goals for 2035 proposed to steadily promote the research and development of digital currency.

Recently, more than 10 provinces have included the digital renminbi pilot project into the financial "14th Five-Year Plan".

  Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of Qinnong Bank, believes that the participation of more regions in the pilot program will help to conduct a larger-scale test application of the digital renminbi in a wider range, test the performance of the digital renminbi system more deeply, and help more users experience in advance. The allure of digital renminbi.

  Since the end of 2019, the central bank has carried out pilot tests of digital renminbi in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiongan, Chengdu and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Beginning in November 2020, six new pilot areas have been added, including Shanghai, Hainan, Changsha, Xi'an, Qingdao, and Dalian, forming a "10+1" pilot area.

Announced on April 2 is the third batch of newly added pilot cities.

  "The pilot work of digital renminbi research and development is progressing rapidly." Wang Pengbo, a senior analyst in the financial industry of Broadcom Consulting, said that the pilot of the digital renminbi since last year has three characteristics: First, the key areas cover comprehensively, basically covering the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei , Central, Western, Northeast, Northwest and other regions; second, the scale of the pilot project has expanded, both the transaction scale of digital RMB wallets and the number of wallets opened have repeatedly hit new highs; Fully integrated, six state-owned commercial banks and nine banks including China Merchants, Wechat, and Internet Merchants are listed as direct operating institutions.

The digital renminbi APP has been launched, and internet platforms such as WeChat, Meituan and Alipay have been connected to the digital renminbi.

As of August last year, 24 city commercial banks have accessed the digital RMB interconnection platform through the city bank clearing center and participated in the pilot program.

  According to data released 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 a transaction amount of 87.565 billion yuan.

  "In 2021, the digital renminbi will take a big step in the pilot application." Dong Ximiao believes that from the perspective of personal wallets, there are only more than 20.87 million at the end of June 2021, and it jumped to 140 million on October 22. By the end of the year More than 260 million, almost doubled in less than two months, and the opening speed has accelerated significantly.

This shows that the digital renminbi is increasingly recognized and welcomed by the public, and it has begun to "fly into the homes of ordinary people".

  On the basis of the previous pilot, Wang Pengbo believes that the time to expand the pilot is ripe.

Next, we must expand the scale of the pilot to cover more scenarios and regions, and then tap and accumulate more experience in operations, technology, and promotion.

Speed ​​up scene construction

  "At present, digital renminbi has formed a number of application models covering online and offline, replicable and promoting in the fields of wholesale and retail, catering, culture and tourism, and government affairs payment. Major pilot projects such as the Beijing Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympic Games have been successfully completed. The scale of users, merchants, and transactions participating in the pilot has grown steadily, and the market has responded well." The central bank said at the symposium that the digital renminbi research and development pilot should continue to expand the coverage of financial services, improve the level of inclusive financial services, help local economic development, and support It will play a greater role in the construction of digital government affairs, improving the quality and efficiency of financial services for the real economy, and improving the business environment.

  Since last year, the construction of digital renminbi scenarios has accelerated.

Especially during the Beijing Winter Olympics, the digital renminbi pilot covered more than 400,000 scenarios, covering the needs of seven key areas including food, housing, transportation, travel, shopping, entertainment, and medicine.

In January this year, the Meituan platform opened a digital RMB payment channel for all scenarios of offline consumption. This is the first time that digital RMB has achieved full-scenario coverage of local life services.

  "Accelerating the popularization pilot of digital renminbi can cover more retail and life service scenarios faster, accelerate the service of the real economy and people's lives, and promote the improvement of the inclusiveness and availability of digital renminbi on a larger scale." Wang Pengbo Express.

  From the perspective of the ecosystem, a digital renminbi ecosystem led by the central bank and involving multiple parties is taking shape.

Dong Ximiao said that the digital renminbi adopts the central bank-commercial bank "two-tier operation" structure. At present, 9 commercial banks are directly engaged in the operation of digital renminbi as operating agencies, while technology companies, payment institutions, local governments and other industrial parties are actively participating. Help improve the digital renminbi ecosystem.

  In the early pilot, the system stability, product usability and scene applicability of the digital RMB business have been effectively verified. Next, the popularization of the scene is considered to be the focus of efforts.

  The central bank made it clear in the symposium that it will adhere to the "two-tier operation" structure, give full play to the advantageous role of designated operating agencies, and increase efforts in pilot applications and ecosystem construction.

We must adhere to marketization, and in the process of digital renminbi development, promotion, and popularization, policy design must fully stimulate the enthusiasm and creativity of financial institutions, technology companies, and local governments.

  At present, in terms of scene construction, the Internet platform is also making efforts to attract people to "try out" the digital renminbi.

On April 2, Meituan announced that it will distribute digital RMB livelihood consumption subsidies to the third batch of pilot city residents.

The data shows that since Meituan opened the digital RMB full-scenario payment channel and launched the digital RMB livelihood consumption subsidy in January, it has driven a total of 6.4 billion yuan in various livelihood consumption.

The matching needs to be improved

  In January this year, the State Council issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Digital Economy" and deployed eight key tasks.

Industry experts believe that the digital renminbi will also usher in new developments.

  Regarding the focus of the next digital renminbi pilot, Wang Pengbo believes that it should focus on scenarios and innovative operation methods.

One is to cover more small-value high-frequency consumption scenarios and accelerate the speed of popularization.

The second is to explore the innovation of operation mode.

In addition to the previous one-time digital renminbi red envelope model, it is also necessary to explore a model that can circulate multiple times and effectively increase user stickiness, so as to form a win-win situation for users, merchants, platforms and digital renminbi.

In addition, the application of digital renminbi can be strengthened in merchant-side payment and corporate payment.

  At the same time, improving the supporting construction of digital renminbi and improving the legal basis of digital renminbi have also been the focus of the industry this year.

Guo Xinming, president of the Nanjing branch of the People's Bank of China, said that the legal basis for digital renminbi should be improved.

In the future, the digital renminbi will complement each other with renminbi cash, and together constitute my country's legal tender system.

On the basis of clarifying the legal compensation of digital renminbi, the acceptance process and technical requirements of digital renminbi should be fully considered, exceptions or exemptions should be made for the legal compensation of digital renminbi, and the issuance process of digital renminbi, anti-money laundering, anti-counterfeiting , personal information protection, consumer rights protection and other issues to make specific and clear regulations.

  Wang Jingwu, vice president and chief risk officer of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, suggested amending the "Renminbi Management Regulations" to clarify the legal attributes of the digital renminbi.

At the same time, formulate special digital renminbi regulations or rules to clarify the operating mechanism of digital renminbi.

Clarify the legal status, rights and obligations of digital RMB participants, clarify the functions of digital RMB wallets and the specific rights and obligations of relevant parties.

  The construction of the rule of law will be one of the important tasks for the development of the digital renminbi in the future.

The central bank emphasized at the symposium that it is necessary to adhere to the rule of law, carry out various tasks in compliance with laws and regulations, carry out the construction of the rule of law in a forward-looking manner, ensure the security of the digital renminbi system, grasp the relationship between privacy protection and crime prevention, and conduct in-depth research. Potential impact on the financial system and many other aspects.

Strengthen the construction of safety and risk prevention and control systems, improve relevant laws and regulations and standard systems, deepen research on theoretical issues, and continuously consolidate the foundation of digital RMB research and development pilot projects.