The digital RMB pilot program is in full bloom

The number of personal wallets opened has exceeded 100 million. The construction of the Beijing Winter Olympics pilot scene has entered the sprint stage

The digital RMB pilot program is in full bloom

Whether it is the coverage area, application scenarios, or the number of wallets opened, the digital RMB pilot is currently showing a "full blossoming" trend. The latest data shows that the cumulative number of digital RMB personal wallets opened has exceeded 100 million; the construction of the digital RMB Beijing Winter Olympics pilot scenario has entered the sprint stage: the construction of the acceptance environment in the Beijing competition area is being accelerated; the payment scenarios within the security red line of the Winter Olympics in the Zhangjiakou competition area are basically fully covered. The application scenarios are also advancing in depth. In addition to daily life consumption scenarios, the digital RMB will be expanded to the securities industry and other fields for the first time.

Industry insiders interviewed by the Economic Information Daily said that the pilot promotion of the digital RMB has become more "deepened", and the expansion of key scenarios has become more in-depth, giving the outside world more room for imagination for its comprehensive application. Looking ahead, the construction of the digital RMB acceptance environment, security and risk management mechanisms, and regulatory frameworks still need to be further improved. The openness of the digital RMB as a financial public infrastructure and its advanced and leading information security as a new generation of payment tools also need to be truly recognized by the market and users.

The overall acceleration of the promotion of the digital RMB is confirmed by data. On the one hand, the number of user entities covered by the digital RMB and the number of personal wallets opened are constantly increasing. As of October 22 this year, 140 million digital RMB personal wallets have been opened. On the other hand, the types of digital RMB pilot scenarios are more abundant. At present, there are more than 3.5 million digital RMB pilot scenarios. "The current digital RMB retail application scenarios have shown a trend of 'full blossoming'. Not only has it made great strides in government and public utility payment projects, but it has also rapidly increased the coverage of commercial scenarios such as people's food, clothing, housing, transportation, and even culture and entertainment. At the same time, it has shown a good development momentum of combining online and offline, and promoting each other between the B-end and the C-end." Che Ning, deputy director of the Center for Rule of Law and Sustainable Development of China University of Political Science and Law, said.

Taking the Winter Olympics scene pilot as an example, as an important part of the digital RMB research and development pilot and the preparations for the Winter Olympics, the digital RMB Beijing Winter Olympics scene pilot is being steadily and orderly promoted. Reporters learned that in the Beijing competition area, the acceptance environment construction work is being accelerated. Among them, the scenes in the Winter Olympics Organizing Committee Park have been completed, and the construction of the digital RMB acceptance environment within the Winter Olympics security red line is being promoted simultaneously with the construction of the venues. Outside the Winter Olympics security red line, transportation, catering and accommodation, shopping, tourism, medical care, communication services, ticketing and entertainment, and other seven categories of scenes are fully covered. In the Zhangjiakou competition area, the payment scenes within the Winter Olympics security red line are basically fully covered. 100% of the 5 payment scenes in the built venues have been landed; 100% of the 14 payment scenes in the unbuilt venues have been signed, and the remaining more than 30 scenes under construction have completed 100% of the merchants. All scenes outside the Winter Olympics security red line are being steadily promoted.

At the same time, the application scenarios of the digital RMB are also expected to expand to the securities industry for the first time. The Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau and the Beijing Local Financial Regulatory Bureau recently announced the first list of projects to be included in the pilot program of financial technology innovation in the capital market, including the "Securities Industry Digital RMB Application Scenario Innovation Pilot" jointly launched by Galaxy Securities and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. This plan is centered around the actual needs of users to purchase financial services and wealth management products, and combined with the characteristics of the digital RMB, it has designed three securities industry application scenarios: "Digital RMB purchases of paid financial services", "Digital RMB investment in over-the-counter wealth management products under the tripartite custody system", and "Digital RMB investment in over-the-counter wealth management products under the digital wealth management wallet system". Wang Pengbo, a senior financial industry analyst at Broadcom Consulting, said that the project has brought into play the characteristics of digital RMB's security and traceability in capital circulation. Trial of the digital RMB

The point is to advance to a deeper level, giving the application of digital RMB more room for imagination.

Wang Pengbo also said that the promotion of digital RMB has officially entered the "deepening" stage of popularization among all people. By continuously issuing red envelopes in cooperation with local governments to drive users to download and use, and relying on banks and acquiring institutions to do a good job in offline promotion and equipment transformation and debugging of digital RMB, the "national testing" of digital RMB has achieved its goal. Che Ning also said that with the continuous expansion of pilot cities and whitelist users, from large commercial banks to national joint-stock banks, to local banks, from large Internet platforms to specialized and new technology companies, from scenario operators to technology providers, digital RMB has already built a considerable ecological structure.

However, industry insiders also said that the digital RMB still faces multiple challenges from pilot to official launch. The most important one is to further improve the acceptance environment and improve the user experience so that users can truly "use" the digital RMB.

Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, recently said that although the current pilot project has been running quite smoothly, the construction of the acceptance environment is still in progress and the acceptance system needs to be transformed and upgraded for all merchants. He also said that the user experience needs to be improved through diversified, intelligent and customized wallet options, as well as a wide range of use cases.

"The merchant side of the digital RMB needs to consider how to extend from group-type and chain merchants to a larger number and wider range of small and medium-sized merchants. In addition, users should also be encouraged to use digital RMB in different scenarios and develop corresponding payment habits." said Su Xiaorui, senior analyst at iResearch.

Che Ning said that the business expansion of the digital RMB is carried out in the market environment of highly developed mobile payment in my country. As a latecomer, it needs to face the already stable consumption habits and market ecological pattern of users. The leading technology of the digital RMB, especially information security, its openness as a financial public infrastructure, and its advanced nature as a new generation of payment tools need to be truly recognized by users and recognized by the market. He said that as a digital form of legal currency and a financial public infrastructure, the digital RMB should adhere to the combination of differentiation and openness in functional positioning, business expansion, mechanism design and technical path, and should continue to be open to all kinds of mainstream payment methods, payment scenarios, and payment technologies in the market, and strengthen itself and gain recognition in the cooperative development of ecological partners.

The next step for the digital RMB will be to further improve its security and risk management mechanisms. Su Xiaorui said that as the types of participants in the digital RMB ecosystem continue to increase, it is necessary to consider how to ensure its technical level and enhance its information security maintenance capabilities. Mu Changchun said that the central bank's digital currency can easily become a target of hackers, so security is the top priority for system development. At present, the People's Bank of China will continue to improve the security management of its operating system throughout the life cycle of the digital RMB to ensure the security and stability of the system.

Yi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China, said earlier that the next step will be to improve the design and use of the digital RMB in a targeted manner based on the pilot situation. First, refer to the management ideas of cash and bank accounts to establish a management model suitable for the digital RMB; second, continue to improve settlement efficiency, privacy protection, anti-counterfeiting and other functions; third, promote the interaction between the digital RMB and existing electronic payment tools to achieve the unity of security and convenience; fourth, improve the construction of the digital RMB ecosystem and enhance the inclusiveness and availability of the digital RMB.