Banking giant BNP Paribas is joining forces with the Bank of China to launch a digital yuan (e-CNY) wallet management platform. This platform will enable the French bank to provide its corporate clients services, like token conversion, wallet opening and management and spending options. BNP Paribas China and the state-owned Bank of China are also exploring other possible digital yuan-related business ventures including offline payments, smart contracts and cross-border settlements.
The announcement was welcomed warmly by Chinese media, with Sun Yang, a senior financial technology researcher at Jiangsu Suning Bank stating that it reflects the expansion of the influence of the digital yuan in the international market and provides more tools for foreign financial users to facilitate cross-border payments between China and other countries.
Pan Hellin, head of the Digital Economics and Financial Innovation Research Centre at the Zhejiang University International Business School, believes that foreign banks which take part in the CBDC pilot will have potential to usher in new opportunities for the internationalization of the yuan as they will be capable to offer more tools to overseas players in the cross-border payments arena.
The move comes after Argentina gave up the USD and started trading with China in CNY and Hebei, a province in China, explored accelerating digital yuan adoption with the help of the Bank of Communications by issuing discount coupons to citizens.
The Chinese central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) is likely to view the wallet management platform launch as a success as it not only proves the strength of the digital yuan in the international market, but opens up numerous possibilities for the digital currency. This could potentially mean increased acceptance of the digital yuan, better access to cross-border payments and more opportunities for the internationalization of the Chinese currency. Chang and secure transactions could mean a whole new era of financial opportunities, but only time will tell.
Madilyn Robinson
- 2023-05-05
Banking Giant BNP Paribas Partners with Bank of China to Launch Digital Yuan Wallet Platform
French banking giant BNP Paribas has announced that it has joined forces with the Bank of China to launch an e-CNY wallet management platform. The platform will enable the bank's corporate clients to benefit from token conversion, wallet opening and management and spending options.
