Standard Chartered to Participate in Trials of China’s Digital Yuan CBDC – Here’s What You Need to Know

cryptonews.com:

Standard Chartered, a British multinational bank, will initiate exchange services for China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan, as it is set to participate in its trials.

On November 27, Standard Chartered announced that it is set to participate in trials of China’s digital yuan, the central bank’s digital currency (e-CNY CBDC). This makes Standard Chartered one of the first foreign banks to engage in trials of China’s digital currency.

The bank’s China division is collaborating with City Bank Clearing Services to provide customers with access to the digital yuan’s interconnection platform, allowing for recharge and redemption. This will enable its clients to purchase, exchange, and redeem e-CNY within their bank accounts. The bank will reportedly focus on areas such as cross-border merchant payments, trade financing, and supply chain financing as part of the pilot testing program, which is currently active in 26 cities and provinces across China.

China’s e-CNY (electronic Chinese Yuan) has gained notable adoption, and global banks are increasingly expressing interest in exploring the use cases and potential integration of digital currency. Standard Chartered’s move follows the broader trend of major economies worldwide initiating digital currency programs.

Earlier this month, Visa also announced that it had completed the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s CBDC pilot program with leading financial institutions, HSBC and Hang Seng Bank. This pilot was part of the “Digital Hong Kong Dollar” program organized by the HKMA, which was initiated earlier this year in May and was the first use case globally to utilize tokenized deposits for interbank B2B self-transactions and cross-chain transactions.

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