#Ecny wechat pay chinachina morningpost trial#
#Ecny wechat pay chinachina morningpost Offline#

Yet the reality is more complicated than that, as China’s digital currency project faces a variety of challenges at home and abroad. Over the past several years China has been steadily making progress towards a digital renminbi, and now seems poised to become the first major economy to launch an official central bank digital currency (CBDC). 'New Perspectives on Asia' highlights the research of junior CSIS staff and interns on issues that are quietly shaping the world's most dynamic region.

Responding to Egregious Human Rights AbusesĬhina's Progress Towards a Central Bank Digital Currency.

Building Sustainable and Inclusive Democracy.

Family Planning, Maternal and Child Health, and Immunizations.

Energy, Climate Change, and Environmental Impacts.

Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation.

Defense Industry, Acquisition, and Innovation.

Intelligence, Surveillance, and Privacy.

In other news, Hong Kong is progressing cross border work on the digital yuan. We’re less confident about this latter point, but certainly, there’s a significant advantage in working with UnionPay for integrating with retailers.

Our simplistic thinking is if UnionPay is allowed to convert bank money into digital currency, then perhaps it can do that on behalf of numerous banks. Is there a possibility that UnionPay could somehow act as a hub for smaller banks reducing the central bank systems’ workload? The big commercial banks can convert central bank money into digital currency. Hence that oversight mechanism could be used for digital currency as well.Īlso, the latest eCNY trials involve six banks, whereas UnionPay has relationships with most banks. The purpose was to provide the central bank with better oversight. Since 2018, WeChat Pay and AliPay have been required to process barcode payments linked to bank accounts via UnionPay’s platform. That’s unless the central bank chooses to bear that cost.Īnother potential advantage for the central bank is regulatory supervision. The downside is that by adding another middleman, you add another layer of cost, and one of the benefits of digital currency is saving money. That’s important because the digital currency will be legal tender, and hence it should be simple to adopt.

If instead stores use existing card infrastructure, it could accelerate adoption dramatically and considerably reduce the friction involved in adoption.

#Ecny wechat pay chinachina morningpost trial#

To date, tests involved signing up retailers to accept the digital yuan.įor example, the latest trial in Suzhou involves 10,000 designated bricks and mortar stores. Potentially this could mark an acceleration in the digital currency trials. The announcement states that it will use existing UnionPay business scenarios and combine them with the digital renminbi and wallet ecosystem.

#Ecny wechat pay chinachina morningpost Offline#

Together the organizations will work on pilot tests in online and offline payment scenarios and expand the digital yuan ecosystem. The report is reliable as it comes from state newswires. A deal was struck between the Digital Currency Research Institute, part of the People’s Bank of China, and UnionPay Business, which operates the merchant services aspect for retailers. Yesterday it was announced that UnionPay, China’s answer to Visa and Mastercard, will be working on China’s central bank digital currency ( CBDC) trials.