HKMA EXPANDS DIGITAL YUAN PILOT
Residents can now use their Hong Kong mobile phone numbers to set up e-CNY personal wallets
Hongkongers can now open e-CNY wallets through four mainland banks in the city and add value via the widely used Faster Payment System (FPS), in a citywide roll-out of a digital yuan pilot that aims to make crossborder retail payments more convenient.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) yesterday said residents could use their Hong Kong mobile phone numbers to set up e-CNY personal wallets and top up the wallets via FPS through 17 retail banks in the city, without having to open a mainland bank account.
The move aims to expand the scope and scale of a crossborder pilot of China’s central bank digital currency being conducted by the HKMA along with the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) since December 2020. Previously, the test was limited to certain banks’ staff members and merchants.
“We are delighted Hong Kong, being the first to conduct a cross-border e-CNY pilot, has also become the first place outside the mainland to allow its residents to set up e-CNY wallets locally,” HKMA chief executive Eddie Yue Wai-man said.
“We will continue to work closely with the PBOC to gradually expand the applications of e-CNY, enrich the range of functionality of the e-CNY wallet available to Hong Kong residents and step up efforts in promoting the acceptance of e-CNY by more retail merchants in the two places.”
The expansion of the pilot programme aimed to provide an “additional safe, convenient and innovative” means of retail payment for Hongkongers spending across the border and mainland users coming to the city, HKMA deputy chief executive Howard Lee said at a press briefing.
“The e-CNY is the digital representation of yuan bank notes,” he said.
“It’s different from the e-wallet operators in the sense that the e-CNY in the wallet is backed by the PBOC, not by individual organisations.”
The wallet was not intended to replace any means of payment already available in the market, Lee said.
“One more option is always better than one fewer,” he added.
In the initial stage of the move, Hong Kong residents can set up digital yuan wallets through Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Construction Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. They may also link to a bank card to add value or make direct payments.
Out of the 17 retail banks, 11 support top-ups from Hong Kong dollar accounts, which can be directly exchanged for yuan using the banks’ exchange rates. Six also support top-ups from yuan accounts.
As a “tier 4” wallet, which does not require real-name authentication, the e-CNY wallet has a cap on outstanding value and transaction amounts. The maximum balance is 10,000 yuan (HK$10,807), while the payment limit per transaction is 2,000 yuan. Users can pay up to 5,000 yuan daily and 50,000 yuan annually.
Beijing began piloting the e-CNY in 2019. It is now available in 26 cities and is accepted by at least 10 million merchants. In Hong Kong, about 300 shops accepted e-CNY, the HKMA said.
The HKMA said it would seek to upgrade the e-CNY wallet to higher tiers through real-name verification.