Chinese Central Bank Deputy Governor Wants China to Accelerate PBoC Rollout

The Chinese central bank - People’s Bank of China (PBoC) - has really accelerated its testing with Digital Yuan. Chen Yulu, the deputy governor of PBoC called for a further accelerated effort to roll-out its Digital Yuan.

The deputy governor said that the Digital Yuan project should form an independent and high-quality element of China’s financial infrastructure, reported the South China Morning Post.

Citing an article published locally, the SCMP quoted Yulu saying: “We must serve dual circulation with fintech-led innovations. We must build an independent and high-quality financial infrastructure … quicken the pace of research and development of the central bank digital currency, and ensure that pilot tests show the digital currency is controllable and safeguards the security of payments.”

The latest comments from the deputy governor comes as China has started looking inwards to boost local demand to keep its economy growing amid rising hostility with the United States.

Last week, several central banks under the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) discussed potential collaboration on having digital currencies to prevent any further barriers in transferring them globally.

Starting today, the European Central Bank (ECB) will conduct a public consultation to create a digital euro for the European Union. The Bank of Korea and the Bank of Japan have also announced that they will start testing their CBDC next year onwards.

Last week, China also conducted one of its biggest trials of Digital Yuan. The Shenzhen government announced a lottery of 10 million Yuan in the form of Digital Yuan. Nearly, two million people had applied for the same of which 50,000 won some prize.

The winners will receive the Digital Yuan over the Digital Renminbi app which will be then accepted by 3000 merchants in some district of Shenzhen. Local supermarkets, pharmacies, and even big retailers like Walmart have participated in the process.

Before this, even the Chinese central bank conducted pilot transaction amounting to 1.1 Billion Yuan. They have reportedly tested and implemented over 6700 use-cases of the Digital Yuan right from bill payments, government services, and transactions.

China has been the clear forerunner in the process of launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Asian economic giant has been accelerating its development to take the first-mover-advantage and reduce its dependence on the U.S. Dollar.