Alibaba founder Jack Ma (third from right) attends MYbank’s opening ceremony in Hangzhou, the capital of China’s Zhejiang province.
Ju Huanzong | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
The online bank, backed by Alibaba’s fintech giant Ant Group, has joined China’s digital yuan pilot program, it said on Monday, as Beijing’s trials expand to eventually roll out the electronic currency for mass use.
MYBank, backed by Ant, said it was one of the parties that participated in the research and development of the Chinese e-currency. It intends to “advance the process under the general arrangement of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC),” said a bank spokesman.
The Chinese central bank’s digital currency pilot project has so far been primarily conducted publicly by state banks, rather than private ones.
Tencent Holdings-backed WeBank is also participating in the digital yuan pilot, the state-backed China Securities News said in a Feb. 20 report, which also mentioned MYBank’s involvement. WeBank declined to comment.
MYbank and WeBank’s services will be rolled out in the PBOC’s digital yuan app soon, according to China Securities News and a screenshot of the app seen by Reuters. The e-wallets from the two private lenders will be similar to the features offered by the six state-owned companies in the trial, the paper added.
China is at the forefront of the global race to launch central bank digital currencies and has so far conducted domestic trials in several major cities, including Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou.
More than 2 billion yuan ($ 309.30 million) has been spent so far using China’s new digital currency in 4 million separate transactions, PBOC governor Yi Gang told reporters in November.