Standard Chartered China Is First Foreign Bank To Join China's CBDC Pilot Testing

Standard Chartered ADR SCBFY Bank (China) announced it initiated the offering of digital yuan exchange services to customers.

What Happened: The multinational bank’s China division is working with City Bank Clearing Services to give customers access to the digital yuan's interconnection platform, offering recharge and redemption.

The digital yuan is China's central bank digital currency (CBDC) and StanChart will be the first foreign bank to join the CBDC business pilot which is currently ongoing in 26 cities and provinces.

As of June 2023, China's digital yuan, also known as e-CNY, is the most advanced CBDC with $253.6 billion in transaction volume since its inception in 2020. The number of wallets surged to 120 million.

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Why It Matters: China’s CBDC is gaining traction with many banks promoting the use of China's digital yuan. French bank BNP Paribas in May 2023 promoted the use of e-CNY through the linking its corporate clients' wallets to bank accounts.  

“As an international bank rooted in the Chinese market for 165 years, Standard Chartered is optimistic about the development prospects of digital Renminbi,” Standard Chartered China President Xiaolei Zhang commented. 

(Renminbi as a term is often used interchangeably with yuan for China's currency.)

The RMB Business Pilot highlights the development of digital yuan which will gradually improve the payment and consumption experience and strengthen interconnection with the international financial market. The application scenarios of digital yuan, include cross-border merchant payments, trade financing and supply chain financing.

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