Mike Smith
10 hours ago
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The People's Bank of China opened the National Digital Yuan Operations Center in Beijing, bringing e-CNY settlement, clearing and analytics under one roof. PBC deputy governor Lu Lei called the project a “historic inevitability,” emphasizing that without a unified infrastructure, the country will not be able to compete with international stablecoins. The center provides 24/7 payment routing, risk monitoring and regional bank connectivity, which will speed up settlements between the 26 pilot cities to fractions of a second.
The new hub was immediately given broad powers. It is responsible for issuing, debiting and reverse exchange of digital banknotes, as well as implementing smart contracts that automate tax credits and subsidies for small businesses. According to the PBC, e-CNY's total turnover has exceeded 2.6 trillion yuan, with services trade and cross-border exports through the Greater Bay Area accounting for a third of the transactions. The center will be supported by four state banks and network giant UnionPay, which has already integrated the digital yuan into 8.4 million POS terminals.
Partner banks say the center will cut settlement costs by at least 35%, as expensive interbank gateways will disappear. Retail chains will get instant crediting, and consumers will be able to make offline payments via NFC without access to the Internet. At the same time, developers will add the ability to “programmatically” verify receipts, simplifying VAT refunds to suppliers. Beijing has already tested payment for city traffic: users top up transportation cards, and the account capacity is updated instantly.
The opening of the center coincided with an initiative by major IT corporations to issue steblecoins pegged to the offshore yuan in Hong Kong. It is important for Beijing to keep control over monetary policy without restricting the international circulation of the currency. Therefore, the regulator is preparing a sandbox for private issuers in parallel - the license will allow the issuance of tokens, but the reserve must be kept in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority under the supervision of the PBC. Such a compromise expands the scope of yuan's use abroad and reduces dependence on dollar intermediaries.
Economists view the move as strategic: while the U.S. gives the green light to dollar-stablecoins, China aims to offer an alternative for cross-border payments in Southeast Asia and Africa. If the center's infrastructure proves reliable, the digital yuan could become a pillar for new trade corridors in the yuan zone and increase the attractiveness of Chinese bonds for foreign investors.
