奥纬观点-数字货币迎来新曙光：为什么数字人民币会永远改变货币流动的方式（英文）-2021.5正文版.pdf

A NEW DAWN FOR DIGITAL CURRENCY Why China’s eCNY will change the way money flowsforever Jason Ekberg Michael Ho A New Dawn for Digital Currency As a country that invented the bank note in the seventh century, China led the way money moves and is used in everyday life. And now it’s at it again. By introducing a central bank digital currency (CBDC), money is going fully digital, setting the standard for the way money flows globally. The currency— known as eCNY— will be recognized legal tender like the paper Yuan. While Chinese payment ecosystem is already high digitized, with 8TN RMB of bank notes still in circulation, the potential of going fully digital remains huge, bringing a new dawn for digital currency. And it’s coming faster than you might think. Testing of the currency, which began last year in four cities, was recently expanded by the PBOC to bigger cities including Beijing and Shanghai. A nationwide roll-out, meanwhile, is slated for next year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing. If they haven’t done so already, financial players need to sit up and take note. Significance of eCNY is not just the digital currency itself— payments are already largely digitized today. What’s more meaningful would be the introduction of a large-scale instant payment infrastructure, sponsored by the Chinese gov’t rather than private sector, with the adoption by some of the largest companies in the world alongside with a huge population that is increasingly internationally connected. And if there is an extension of eCNY into cross- border transaction, supported by liberalization policy, this will accelerate the RMB further as a true global trade current bringing both savings and efficiency to the cross-border flows. With cur