On November 27th, Standard Chartered announced a partnership with City Bank Clearing Services Co to allow its customers to buy, exchange, and convert e-CNY (Digital Chinese Yuan) within their bank accounts. Xiaolei Zhang, Chairman of Standard Chartered China, expressed optimism about the development prospects of the digital Renminbi, stating, “As an international bank with a presence in the Chinese market for 165 years, Standard Chartered is very optimistic about the prospects of the digital Renminbi.”
The bank will also participate in the pilot testing of China’s e-CNY Central Bank Digital Currency, which is currently underway in 26 provinces and cities. Standard Chartered has indicated that their exploration areas include cross-border trade payments, trade finance, and supply chain finance.
Last year, Standard Chartered participated in the proof-of-concept project “Multilateral Central Bank Digital Currency Bridge” in Hong Kong, aiming to provide cross-border payment services for retail and corporate customers. In May 2023, Standard Chartered and PricewaterhouseCoopers China jointly released a report titled “Central Bank Digital Currency to Create the Future Banking Ecosystem,” discussing the potential applications of CBDC in retail, trade, and supply chain finance.
On November 25th, the People’s Bank of China published a whitepaper titled “Solutions for the Application of Digital Renminbi between Enterprises in Cross-Border E-commerce.” The document calls for payment processors to integrate digital CBDC for consumer transactions. Since its establishment in 2020, e-CNY transactions have exceeded 1.8 trillion Chinese Yuan (approximately $253.6 billion USD), and the number of wallets has increased to 120 million.