Hong Kong has launched a pilot scheme that enables its residents to use digital yuan (also called e-CNY) – the first of its kind outside the Chinese mainland.
Under the initiative, residents can set up digital wallets through branches of four mainland Chinese banks and top them up from their Hong Kong dollar accounts using the city’s Faster Payment System – a well established electronic settlement platform. A mainland Chinese bank account is not required, the South China Morning Post reports.
The move is designed to make it easier for Hong Kong residents to make and receive payments in and from the mainland.
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“We are delighted that Hong Kong, being the first place to conduct a cross-boundary e-CNY pilot, has also become the first place outside mainland China that enables its residents to set up e-CNY wallets locally,” Eddie Yue, CEO of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, told the Post.
He said that Hong Kong authorities would continue to work with their mainland counterparts to “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.”
Because the accounts do not require real-name authentication, users are limited to 50,000 yuan in daily transactions, and 50,000 yuan a year.
