Jack Ma (third from right), founder of Alibaba, attends the opening ceremony of MYbank in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, in China.
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 expanded its trials aimed at eventually implementing the mass-use electronic currency.
MYBank, which is supported by ant, said it is one of the parties involved in the research and development of China’s e-currency. The bank plans to “promote the trial under the overall arrangement of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC)”, a bank spokesman said.
The Chinese central bank’s launch for digital currency has so far taken place mainly in public through state-owned banks, rather than privately owned banks.
WeBank, which is backed by Tencent Holdings, is also taking part in the digital yuan launch, state-backed China Securities News said in a February 20 report in which it also mentioned the involvement of MYBank. WeBank declined to comment.
MYbank and WeBank’s services will soon be introduced to the PBOC’s digital yuan app, according to China Securities News and a screenshot of the app seen by Reuters. The e-wallets of the two privately owned credit providers will be similar to the features offered by the six credit providers at the trial, the newspaper added.
China is a pioneer in the global race to launch central bank digital currencies and has so far held domestic trials in several major cities, including Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou.
PBOC governor Yi Gang told reporters in November. More than 2 billion yuan ($ 309.30 million) has so far been spent in the use of China’s new digital currency in 4 million separate transactions.