Standard Chartered joins China’s CBDC trials
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Standard Chartered became the newest member of the group of financial institutions participating in the trials of China’s digital currency efforts. According to new reports, the bank will offer exchange services for the country’s CBDC, known as digital yuan, or e-CNY.
The bank will collaborate with the local authorities through its China division, and it will work with City Bank Clearing Services. The integration will provide customers with the ability to access the digital yuan’s interconnection platform and facilitate services like redemption and recharge.
🔥 JUST IN: Ripple partner Standard Chartered China Offering Exchange Services for Digital Yuanhttps://t.co/HbqeZuRYbE #xrp $xrp #XRPCommunity #crypto #blockchain
— Cryptic Poet (@1CrypticPoet) November 28, 2023
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Digital yuan trials continue
China was the first to announce its own government-controlled digital currency, and while many other economies quickly joined the race to be the first to launch a CBDC, China is still in the lead. After years of research, development, and testing, the country continues to conduct digital yuan trials.
By mid-2022, the country had recorded transaction volumes that reached 1.8 trillion yuan or around $250 billion. In other words, the adoption and integration of the digital yuan into the country’s banking sector are seeing a rapid rise.
Recently, the sector has seen several noteworthy developments, such as BNP Paribas’ action to encourage the use of digital yuan. This is the state of the financial industry in China at the moment of Standard Chartered’s entry.
The bank has reportedly worked on connecting its clients’ bank accounts with their wallets, which only further demonstrates the growth and acceptance of China’s CBDC in the global banking community.
Tokenization blows up as financial institutions start rolling out their own platforms
Apart from entering digital yuan trials, Standard Chartered has seen other crypto-related developments as well. For example, its fintech investment and venture arm, SC Ventures, rolled out a new tokenization platform earlier in November. Known as Libeara, the platform allows users to create and tokenize Singapore dollar government bond funds.
This move also highlights the growing trend of tokenization that is becoming stronger and stronger in the financial arena. As a result, other major financial institutions have started joining the trend, including HSBC and UBS Asset Management.
Specifically, HSBC launched a platform for tokenizing gold, while UBS is piloting a tokenized money market fund on Ethereum’s network. Then, there is Citi, which recently introduced Token Services, aiming to cover the deposit tokenization sector.
Digital yuan is being tested in cross-border payments
With all these developments, China’s CBDC, e-CNY, still stands as the most advanced central bank digital currency project in the world. When the project first became known to the public, a number of other central banks started working on their own local CBDCs, believing that China might try to take over international transactions with its project, if they don’t come out with their own cryptos.
And, while the country initially focused on the domestic use of digital yuan, it turned out that other central banks were right in their predictions, as cross-border trials of digital yuan have already started in Hong Kong.
