With Standard Chartered’s recent entry on November 27, more international banks have joined the integration of China’s digital yuan central bank digital currency (CBDC), the e-CNY. There are now three foreign banks that offer e-CNY on their platforms:
- HSBC,
- Hang Seng Bank,
- and Fubon Bank, all situated in Taiwan.
Clients of these banks will be able to transfer and withdraw e-CNY. By enabling personal banking users to attach debit cards within the official e-CNY app, redeem digital renminbi, and top up the digital renminbi wallet using the Hang Seng China Mobile Banking App, Hang Seng Bank has gone one step further. Similar features have been implemented by HSBC to enable its clients to use e-CNY for retail transactions.
Fubon Bank, on the other hand, is enabling users to recharge e-CNY through mobile banking and spend the CBDC using its bank card. The bank expressed its commitment to exploring e-CNY CBDC applications in cross-border trade, smart contracts, cross-border payments, and supply chain finance.
Song Yuesheng, Vice Chairman and President of Hang Seng China, outlined the bank’s plans to leverage the ongoing e-CNY CBDC pilot to create new consumption scenarios, enrich service systems, stimulate new consumption vitality, and provide business opportunities.
Standard Chartered, in a statement, mentioned that it is currently experimenting with the e-CNY CBDC in areas such as cross-border merchant payments, trade financing, and supply chain financing.
In a noteworthy development last month, the Chinese digital yuan CBDC was used for the first time to settle a cross-border oil deal, with PetroChina International purchasing 1 million barrels of oil using the CBDC.
Reports indicate that the use of the yuan in cross-border settlements saw a 35% year-on-year increase, reaching $1.39 trillion in the first three quarters of 2023.
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