China’s Trials of Central Bank Digital Currency Still Far Off, Will Only Be Internal Tests

754

Inside sources have said to domestic media that the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC) is still some distance away from the testing phase.

Sources close to PBOC’s digital currency research institute said to 21st Century Business Herald that trials of the CBDC are still “quite far away,” and that “it would be more accurate to say that they are internal tests.”

With regard to recent reports that Shenzhen and Suzhou would be the two cities chosen for trials of the CBDC, the source said that the likely reason for this is that both cities are home to branch offices for PBOC’s digital currency research institute.

According to recent media reports PBOC’s trial of the CBDC will involve the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the big four state-owned banks, in­clud­ing Agri­cul­tural Bank of China (ABC), Bank of China (BOC), China Con­struc­tion Bank (CCB) and the In­dus­trial and Com­mer­cial Bank of China (ICBC), as well as the big three tele­coms gi­ants – China Mo­bile, China Uni­com and China Tele­com. 

Related stories

PBOC to Trial Cen­tral Bank Dig­i­tal Cur­rency in Shen­zhen, Suzhou; Big Four State-owned Banks to Take Part

Cen­tral Bank Dig­i­tal Cur­rency Ex­pected to Drive In­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion of the Ren­minbi

Chi­nese Cen­tral Bank Re­cruits Blockchain Ex­perts for Dig­i­tal Cur­rency De­vel­op­ment, Of­fers Monthly Salaries over USD$11,000

How Ali­pay and WeChat Pay Rev­o­lu­tionised Chi­nese Pay­ments, Paved the Way for Cen­tral Bank Dig­i­tal Cur­rency – In­ter­view with Rich Tur­rin