China News Network, April 4 (Zhongxin Finance, Gong Hongyu) Recently, the news of "using digital yuan to pay wages in one place" has aroused widespread discussion.

According to Shanghai Securities News, the Changshu Local Financial Supervision Administration of Jiangsu Province and the Changshu Municipal Bureau of Finance recently issued the Notice on the Implementation of Digital RMB Distribution of Full Wages. The notice said that starting from May, Changshu City's civil servants (including public service personnel), public institution personnel, and personnel of state-owned units at all levels will be paid in full digital yuan.

"What is it like to receive a salary in the form of digital yuan?" Many netizens are curious.

Guangzhou citizens pay with digital yuan at coffee shops. Photo courtesy of Nansha District Government

Many places "early adopter" to pay wages in digital yuan

Paying wages in digital RMB refers to the employer's payment of employees' wages in digital RMB to the employee's personal digital currency wallet. In fact, several cities have tried this since last year.

For example, Taicang City, Jiangsu Province, implemented RMB wage payment last year. According to the "Taicang Finance" public account, in July 2022, the staff of 7 city-level departments, 59 districts and towns in Taicang City, as well as the staff of state-owned enterprises used digital yuan to pay salaries on their behalf.

Several jurisdictions in Suzhou are also actively promoting digital yuan payroll. According to media reports, in March 2022, 3 newly applied for salary subsidies for high-level talents in key industries in Xiangcheng District of Suzhou received talent subsidies issued through digital yuan, totaling 64,23 yuan. In June of the same year, the incumbents of Wujiangdong Taihu Lake Resort (Taihu New Town) received the first 5 yuan digital yuan salary from their employers.

The General Office of the People's Government of Jiangsu Province issued the "Jiangsu Province Digital RMB Pilot Work Plan" this year, which mentioned that it is necessary to gradually explore the use of digital RMB by fiscal budget units and state-owned enterprises and institutions to carry out daily fund collection and payment, and focus on the application of fiscal payment, government procurement, public resource transactions, tax payment, social security, education and medical care and other public fields.

Not only Jiangsu, but many provinces across the country are trying to pay wages in digital yuan.

According to media reports, in February 2023, Bank of Communications Shandong Branch successfully landed Jinan's first digital RMB salary agency business for municipal state-owned enterprises in Jinan. In August 2, Ningbo landed the first batch of administrative institutions to pay wages in digital RMB, and five administrative institutions, including the Cixi Municipal Bureau of Finance and the Financial Development Service Center, paid part of the wages of 2022 employees in July in digital RMB.

In this regard, Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of China Recruitment Federation, said in an exclusive interview with Zhongxin Finance that paying salaries in the form of digital RMB to public employees, from point to face, and continuously expanding the application scenarios of digital RMB, will help change public concepts, cultivate usage habits, and further promote the application and promotion of digital RMB. Next, there may be more places to promote the use of digital yuan to pay salaries.

What is the difference between receiving a digital yuan salary?

Digital RMB is accelerating into life, "salary into digital currency" makes many people curious, what is special about using digital RMB to receive salary? What is the experience?

"We have been paying salaries in digital yuan for a year." Yifei (pseudonym) from Hunan told Zhongxin Finance.

Yifei's unit is one of the pilot units for the promotion of Hunan digital yuan. She said that receiving digital yuan wages is not difficult to operate, and only needs to download a digital yuan app.

"After receiving the salary, you can withdraw the digital yuan to the bank card without handling fees, and as usual, the money can be directly consumed, or it can be spent on Alipay and WeChat." An interviewee from a public institution in Suzhou told Zhongxin Finance.

In the eyes of many, as the application scenarios continue to expand, payrolls paid in digital yuan are more convenient to use.

For example, in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, residents can use the money in their digital yuan wallets to directly pay for their children's meals at school. Some gas and water and electricity payments in Suzhou can also be paid in digital RMB; Digital RMB payment in multiple large public parking lots; Suzhou Hisamitsu Department Store and many other large commercial complexes carry out digital RMB settlement business.

In addition, with the vigorous promotion of the application of digital yuan in various places, the use of digital yuan to consume more and more wool.

Yu Chao (pseudonym) from Beijing told Zhongxin Finance that she received a 20 yuan consumption red envelope from the bank when she opened her personal digital yuan wallet. Zhongxin Finance has noticed that many cities have launched "digital currency red envelopes", covering multiple consumption scenarios. In addition, the use of digital yuan to shop in supermarkets can also encounter merchants' preferential activities from time to time.

Infographic: Consumers shop with digital yuan. Photo by Gong Hongyu

The number of account openings continues to climb, have you opened it?

With the promotion of the use of digital RMB to pay salaries and withdraw provident funds, as well as expand digital RMB consumption scenarios, the number of digital RMB account openings and transaction volumes are also rising.

Data show that by the end of 2022, the number of digital RMB wallets opened in many places reached the order of millions, and the cumulative transaction amount in some regions exceeded <> billion yuan.

Taking Suzhou as an example, in 2022, Suzhou launched a series of digital RMB consumption promotion activities, with banks and sectors investing nearly 1 million yuan in promoting consumption throughout the year, driving consumption of more than 2.33 billion yuan. By the end of 2022, there will be more than 3054.93 million digital currency personal wallets, more than 48,<> pilot scenarios, and more than <>,<> digital currency merchants in Suzhou.

However, although the digital yuan is gradually integrated into life, many netizens still say that "it has not been opened so far".

Dong Ximiao believes that for electronic money and payment tools, the richness of scenarios often affects user choice and use experience. The construction of digital RMB application scenarios should be further strengthened, and through a complete ecosystem and rich application scenarios, digital RMB should be ubiquitous and accessible, so as to attract more public and institutions to use it, and improve the frequency of use and user experience. (End)