The head of People’s Bank of China’s Digital Currency Research Institute says that the digital renminbi will serve as tool for helping to drive financial inclusion in China.
“During the process of trials of the digital renminbi, we have always worked hard to realise the concept of financial inclusion,” said Mu Changchun (穆长春), during a speech delivered on 24 September at the 10th China Payment and Clearing Forum.
“At present in the payments inclusion sphere there is still a ‘digital divide,’ and as a public product of PBOC provided to the domestic retail payments market, the original intention was to drive the development of financial inclusion.”
Mu said that the digital renminbi is designed specifically to drive financial inclusion in four areas, including:
- Strengthening the accessibility of payments services.
- Striving to reduce payments costs and increase “bearability.”
- Raising the usage efficiency of payments products.
- Maintaining fair competition in the payments market during digital renminbi trials.
“Over the past several decades, the concept of financial inclusion has already undergone major development,” said Mu.
“At first it focused on small-scale loans and micro-finance. Now, financial inclusion is viewed as covering broad and comprehensive policy targets, and refers to the provision of appropriate and effective financial services at a bearable cost to those classes and groups of society with financial services demands.”
