Standard Chartered joined China’s CBCC test
British multinational bank Standard Chartered is one of the first foreign banks to do so in the country through its digital yuan central bank digital currency (CBDC), e-CNI.
According to an announcement on November 27, Standard Chartered through its partner City Bank Clearing Services Co will allow customers to buy, exchange and buy e-CNNs in their bank accounts. Xiaolei Zhang, president of Standard Chartered China, said, “As a global bank based in the Chinese market for 165 years, Standard Chartered is optimistic about the development of the digital renminbi.”
The bank will join China's e-CNC CBCC pilot program currently underway in 26 cities and provinces. Standard Chartered's exploration business includes cross-border merchant payments, trade finance and supply chain finance.
Last year, Standard Chartered participated in the “Multilateral Central Bank Digital Currency Bridge” pilot project to provide cross-border payment settlement services to retail and enterprise customers in Hong Kong. In May 2023, Standard Chartered and PricewaterhouseCoopers China jointly released a report, “Central Bank Digital Currency to Create the Future Banking Ecosystem,” discussing the implementation prospects of CBDCs in the retail, trade, and supply chain finance sectors.
In the year On November 25, China's central bank published a white paper titled “Cross-Border E-Commerce Business-to-Business Digital Renminbi Application Solution.” The document calls for commercial payment processors to integrate e-CNY CBCC for consumer transactions. In the year Since its launch in 2020, e-CNI transactions have exceeded 1.8 trillion yuan ($253.6 billion), and the number of wallets has risen to 120 million.
Related: What is CBDC? Why do central banks want to get into digital currencies?
