Mining E-CNY

Caijing Magazine Issue 16, 2021

On July 16, 2021, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, released the white paper “Progress of Research & Development of E-CNY in China,” announcing the introduction of the country’s digital fiat currency — E-CNY.

At the release conference, Fan Yifei, deputy governor of the PBOC, mentioned that at present, there are six state-owned commercial banks, one joint-stock commercial bank, and two private banks that have been involved in the research and development (R&D) of the E-CNY. Besides, the country’s three leading telecommunications services providers have also established joint project teams with banks to get involved in the R&D.

As of June 30, 2021, the number of pilot zones for E-CNY has increased to 1.32 million, covering payments for utilities, catering services, transportation, shopping, and government services.

Fan emphasized that there is no preset timetable for the implementation of E-CNY. And the E-CNY operational institutions have yet to clarify the business prospects of the digital currency, but everybody still seems to be counting down to the official adoption of E-CNY.