Diversified payments are not meant to replace cash

　　Yao Jin

　　Recently, a rumor that "large banknotes will gradually withdraw from market circulation" has caused ripples, and some even believe that this move is to promote the digital renminbi.

Obviously, this is a misreading.

Renminbi cash is the legal currency of the country. The research and development of digital renminbi is not to replace cash, but to help the development of the digital economy, improve the development level of inclusive finance, and better meet the production and living needs of the people.

Cash is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

　　As banknotes will gradually age and become dirty and old during the circulation process, this "dirty" type of banknotes is not suitable for circulation of RMB.

In order to further improve the quality of RMB in circulation, in August 2022, the People's Bank of China issued a new version of the "RMB Notes Unsuitable for Circulation" (JR/T0153-2022) financial industry standard, which improved the evaluation criteria for dirt indicators.

The current recycling of some banknotes is to further improve the cleanliness of RMB in circulation and ensure that the public can use "safe money" and "clean money".

　　In recent years, with the popularization of third-party payment methods, cash payment in many scenarios such as shopping, dining, refueling, and ticket purchase has been gradually replaced by mobile phone scanning.

The rapid development of mobile payment has changed the traditional payment methods and everyone's payment habits.

Some people say that it doesn’t matter if you don’t bring cash when you go out, but it’s “difficult to move an inch” if you forget your mobile phone; Payment is the general trend, so it is superfluous to rectify the rejection of cash.

　　These views seem to have some truth, but they are not.

RMB is the legal tender of my country, and RMB cash is the most basic means of payment in my country.

In reality, the refusal of cash by some merchants or public service agencies not only deprives consumers of payment options, but also damages the dignity of the RMB as a legal currency, and is not conducive to the formation of a fair competitive market environment.

　　Cash has irreplaceable advantages in ensuring the fairness of the public's payment rights and stabilizing the public's payment needs under extreme circumstances such as major natural disasters.

Especially for the elderly, refusing to accept cash brings a lot of inconvenience to the life of the elderly.

As early as 2018, the regulatory authorities clearly encouraged the development of diversified payment methods and rectified the behavior of refusing to accept cash.

In December 2020, the central bank issued a special announcement on matters related to the regulation of RMB cash receipts and payments, reiterating that no unit or individual shall reject cash, and shall not exclude or discriminate against cash payments.

It can be seen that no matter what the reason is, it cannot be a reason for rejecting cash.

　　At present, my country has formed a diversified payment tool system with the coexistence of cash, bank cards, Internet payment, and mobile payment. At the same time, the research and development and pilot work of digital renminbi are steadily advancing.

Different payment tools have their own advantages and can better meet the payment needs of different market entities.

Encouraging diversified payments does not mean saying "no" to cash, but giving consumers the right to choose payment methods.

It is necessary to affirm the significance of diversified payment, strengthen the promotion of various payment and settlement methods, and fully respect the payment and settlement habits of the public, including the habit of using cash to pay.

　　It needs to be emphasized that the digital renminbi is used as a supplement to the daily consumption payment methods of the people, not to replace cash, and the two will coexist for a long time.

Regarding the issue that some people are worried that the digital renminbi will infringe on personal privacy, it should be noted that the digital renminbi, as the legal digital currency issued by the central bank, will fully respect privacy and personal information protection, and do a good job of risk prevention on this basis.

On the premise that physical cash is still issued, the public can still obtain the complete anonymity provided by physical cash, which will not be affected by the issuance of digital renminbi.