China’s central bank is pushing for interconnectivity between its digital yuan and other traditional digital electronic payment tools through universal QR code payments, as the country expands the pilots for its digital currency.

See related article: China to speed up, expand digital yuan smart contracts, PBOC official says

Fast facts

• Fan Yifei, a deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), said at a forum on Thursday that standardization is key for the construction of a sound ecosystem for the e-CNY, the nation’s central bank digital currency.

• Fan said it is important to promote the unification of digital identity, QR code mechanisms, Bluetooth and near-field communications to allow consumers to scan a QR code for various kinds of payment access.

• The comments come as the country has seen widespread use of QR code payment systems dominated by Ant Group’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay.

• Earlier this month, Mu Changchun, director-general of the PBoC’s digital currency institute, said the central bank plans to deploy more smart contracts for the digital yuan as an increasing number of use cases have emerged amid testing of the new digital currency.

• The PBoC started pilot trials of the e-CNY in Shenzhen in October 2020 and it has since expanded the trials to at least 23 cities and regions.

See related article: Digital yuan transactions top US$73 mln in Guangzhou