Chinese payments platform Alipay has debuted a Digital Renminbi payments and transfer function on its mobile app that connects to a wallet under development by Alibaba-backed digital lender MYBank.
The Alipay app has just launched a “Digital Renminbi module” (数字人民币模块) according to a report from Cailianshe (财联社).
Alipay users now see a “Digital Renminbi” option under the “My” (我的) section of the app, alongside other options such as Alipay’s consumer credit platform Huabei (花呗) and “bank card.”
By clicking on “Digital Renminbi” and entering their details, Alipay users can register for a Digital Renminbi wallet with MYBank – the digital lender backed by Alipay-affiliate Alibaba.
The wallet provides the options of “real name usage” (实名使用) alongside “anonymous usage” (实名使用), with each Alipay account number limited to a single MYBank Digital Renminbi wallet that has a unique serial number.
The wallet permits the transfer of Digital Renminbi to bank cards and the transfer of funds from bank cards into the Digital Renminbi wallet, as well as transfers and acceptances between accounts using either mobile phone numbers or email addresses as account identifiers.
While users are able to register for the MYBank wallet, they cannot yet use it however, with a system notice indicating that the “MYBank wallet function is still under development” (网商银行钱包该功能尚在开发中).
According to Cailianshe the wallet at present can also only be linked to banks cards provided by the big state-owned lenders including Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, ICBC, Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank of China, as well as MYBank cards.
The debut addition of Digital Renminbi payments options to the Alipay app arrives just after other Alibaba-affiliates have trialled the addition of similar functionality via their ties to MYBank, including online food delivery service Ele.me, fresh produce seller Hema Xiansheng, and B2C online retail platform Tmall.
The move also makes MYBank one of the first lenders to trial the launch of a Digital Renminbi wallet, after they were first debuted by all of China’s big six state-owned lenders.
