More foreign banks join China’s CBDC pilot trials

More foreign banks have joined China’s digital yuan central bank digital currency (CBDC), the e-CNY, following British bank Standard Chartered’s entry on Nov. 27, bringing its total to four.

According to local news reports, Hong Kong-based HSBC, Hang Seng Bank and Taiwanese bank Fubon Bank have also added e-CNY integrations to their platforms. All four foreign banks will allow their clients to transfer and withdraw e-CNY. Moreover, Hang Seng Bank has allowed personal banking customers to bind debit cards within the official e-CNY app and redeem digital renminbi. They can also top up the digital renminbi wallet through the Hang Seng China Mobile Banking App. HSBC has also added similar features for retail e-CNY use for its clients.

As for Fubon Bank, it has allowed users to recharge e-CNY via mobile banking and spend the CBDC using its bank card. The firm said it would continue to explore 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, said that the bank plans to use the ongoing e-CNY CBDC pilot to “create new consumption scenarios, enrich service systems, stimulate new consumption vitality, and provide business opportunities.” The day before, Standard Chartered stated that it is currently experimenting with the e-CNY CBDC in fields such as “cross-border merchant payments, trade financing, and supply chain financing.”

Last month, Cointelegraph reported that the Chinese digital yuan CBDC was used for the first time to settle a cross-border oil deal where PetroChina International purchased 1 million barrels of oil using the CBDC. In the first three quarters of 2023, the use of the yuan in cross-border settlements was up 35% year-on-year, reaching $1.39 trillion, China Daily reported.