Legal regulations in the cryptocurrency market are increasing along with significant partnerships. In this context, the British bank Standard Chartered has decided to participate in the testing phase of the digital yuan central bank digital currency (e-CNY CBDC) project undertaken by the Chinese government. The bank will be one of the first foreign banks to carry out this operation in the country.
According to an announcement made by Standard Chartered on November 27th, the bank will allow its customers to purchase and use e-CNY through their bank accounts via the intermediary City Bank Clearing Services Co. Following this announcement, Xiaolei Zhang, Chairman of Standard Chartered China, stated that the bank has been deeply rooted in the Chinese market for 165 years and is optimistic about the development of the e-CNY digital currency project.
Alongside this announcement, the bank also declared its participation in the ongoing e-CNY CBDC pilot test program in 26 cities and regions of China. Standard Chartered mentioned that the testing phase includes exploring areas such as cross-border commercial payments, trade financing, and supply chain financing.
Last year, Standard Chartered participated in the “Multiple Central Bank Digital Currency Bridge” test project launched in Hong Kong, which aims to provide cross-border payment settlement services to individual and corporate clients.
In May 2023, Standard Chartered and PricewaterhouseCoopers China published a report titled “Creating the Future Banking Ecosystem with Central Bank Digital Currency,” addressing application expectations in the areas of individual, trade, and supply chain financing. On November 25th, the People’s Bank of China shared a report titled “Cross-Border E-commerce Digital Currency Application Solution for Businesses” with the public, calling for commercial payment processors to integrate e-CNY CBDC assets for consumer transactions. Since the initial step in 2020, e-CNY transactions have exceeded 1.8 trillion Yuan, and the number of wallets has risen to 120 million.
