PANews reported on October 12 that Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, recently wrote in (Current Affairs Report) that steadily promoting the research and development and application of digital RMB is an important part of the strategy of building a financial power. The article emphasizes that the digital RMB has a two-tier operating structure, with both account and value models, and has been widely used in multiple scenarios such as wholesale and retail, and social governance. In the future, the digital RMB will deepen its development in cross-border payments, smart contracts and other fields, and help the internationalization of the RMB and the construction of a unified domestic market. According to a survey by the Bank for International Settlements, the digital RMB has become one of the world's leading central bank digital currency projects.
At present, the scope of the digital RMB pilot covers 26 regions in 17 provinces (municipalities), and the next step will be further deepened. As of the end of July 2024, the digital RMB App has opened a total of 180 million personal wallets, and the cumulative transaction amount in the pilot areas is 7.3 trillion yuan. The digital RMB has both account and value modes, and realizes a global account through data capacity building: in the account mode, it can be integrated and interconnected with the traditional bank account system; in the value mode, value can be exchanged in the form of currency strings, which can provide smart payment on the blockchain, and can also be used in offline extreme scenarios such as "no network" and "no electricity", optimizing the traditional trade finance business process and supporting cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
The People's Bank of China will establish and improve the digital RMB supervision, operation, self-discipline and other institutional mechanisms, further improve the top-level design, promote the construction of the system of rules and regulations, expand the application scenarios of digital RMB from retail to wholesale, and from payment to broad financial business including deposits, loans, remittances, and investments, so as to more effectively play the role of legal tender and improve the efficiency of financial resource allocation, management and service capabilities. Under the two-tier operation structure, the People's Bank of China will build and operate the central bank-side digital RMB system, provide public infrastructure for transaction transfer and settlement, and guide multiple entities to participate and compete fairly under the premise of compliance with laws and regulations, and provide high-quality services to the public. Through the hybrid system architecture and intelligent data analysis capabilities, a central bank-participating institution global account is formed, and the statistical, monitoring and management capabilities are improved by using regulatory technology means, which not only supports the central bank in performing its duties, but also helps to build a unified domestic market. The digital RMB adopts a modular design, which can flexibly connect to the infrastructure of foreign central banks, realize "one-stop access" with the connected jurisdiction, and is convenient to open a wallet. It adheres to the principle of "lossless, compliant, and interoperable", which helps to enhance mutual trust between different jurisdictions and has a natural advantage in cross-border applications.