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Expressing disappointment with the result of a trial in select
provinces and cities, the former official, Xie Ping, told a
conference that application of the so-called digital yuan needed
to be widened.
"The cumulative circulation of the digital yuan in the two years
of the trial has been only 100 billion yuan ($14 billion)," he
said. The figure showed that "usage has been low, highly
inactive."
"The results are not ideal," Xie, a former PBOC director-general
of research, said at the conference on digital finance held by
Tsinghua University, according to Caixin.
Central bank digital currencies are digital tokens, similar to
cryptocurrencies, issued by central banks. China has been a
leader among several countries that are developing the new means
of exchange.
"What needs to change is the digital yuan acting only as a
substitute for cash and only for consumption," Xie said.
"Cash, bank cards and China's third-party payment mechanisms
have formed a payment market structure that has met needs for
daily consumption," he said. "The common people are used to it,
and changing it is difficult."
Digital-yuan business had no synergistic effect and no
commercial benefits in banks' business, he said. Meanwhile,
third-party payment systems, such as Alibaba Group's Alipay,
offered a more attractive range of functions, such as
investment, insurance and consumer lending.
To address the problem, usage of the digital yuan could be
expanded - for example, by letting individuals buy financial
products with it, Xie said. Also, it could be connected with
more payment platforms, to move into more consumption
situations.
($1 = 6.9691 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Jason Xue and Brenda Goh; Editing by Bradley
Perrett)
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