The People's Bank of China has formally designated the digital yuan (e-CNY) as a strategic priority in its 15th five-year plan for 2026-2030. To drive domestic adoption, the central bank authorized commercial banks to pay interest on e-CNY balances. Internationally, China is accelerating cross-border pilots, including a 10 million yuan maritime settlement with Singapore and expanding the mBridge platform, which saw corporate clients jump 176% and handled a record HK$10 billion transfer.
PBOC five-year plan priorities
- ▪The People's Bank of China formally included the development of the digital yuan (e-CNY) as a core task in its 15th five-year reform and development plan for the 2026-2030 period.
- ▪The People's Bank of China's 2026-2030 plan outlines international goals to expand renminbi use in trade and investment, develop offshore RMB markets, and strengthen Shanghai and Hong Kong as financial hubs.
- ▪The People's Bank of China placed the digital yuan under the fifth priority axis of its 2026-2030 plan, which focuses on financial infrastructure, central bank services, payment systems, credit reporting, and anti-money laundering.
Digital yuan strategic development
- ▪The People's Bank of China began research on the digital yuan in 2014 under the name DCEP and officially launched the digital currency in April 2022.
- ▪At the 2026 National People's Congress, deputy Fu Xiguo proposed revising the People's Bank of China's 2003 organic law because current regulations do not recognize the e-CNY as legal tender.
Cross-border payment pilots
- ▪Industrial and Commercial Bank of China branches settled approximately 10 million yuan in maritime freight charges with Singapore in the first cross-border digital yuan payment using the CBETS platform.
- ▪Guangdong province published a draft of its own five-year plan, open for public comment until September 5, 2026, calling for the expansion of cross-border e-CNY payment pilots.
- ▪The CBETS platform, used for cross-border digital yuan payments, signed on its first 26 financial institutions in June 2026.
mBridge platform transaction growth
- ▪The mBridge multilateral settlement platform recorded a 176% year-over-year growth in corporate clients during the first half of 2026.
- ▪The Fujian branch of the Bank of China channeled over HK$10 billion ($1.28 billion) through the mBridge platform, marking the platform's largest individual transfer to date.
- ▪Industrial Bank extended mBridge services to Macau and executed a 500 million yuan (approximately $74 million) equity transaction.
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