The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has approved eight additional commercial lenders as official digital yuan (e-CNY) operators, bringing the total number of authorized institutions to 30. The newly added banks are Ping An Bank, Hengfeng Bank, Bohai Bank, Bank of Shanghai, Bank of Hangzhou, Huishang Bank, Bank of Changsha, and Guangxi Beibu Gulf Bank. They will connect to the central bank’s digital yuan system and begin offering services once technical and operational setup is complete.
The expansion follows an earlier round that added 12 banks, including China CITIC Bank, China Everbright Bank, and Huaxia Bank. Before that, only 10 institutions were cleared as operators: six state-owned commercial banks, two joint-stock lenders, and two internet banks. The PBOC said more operators will help expand access to e-CNY services and meet public demand for safe, convenient payments, while also promoting competition.
The central bank has listed steady development of the digital yuan among its core tasks in the 2026-2030 reform blueprint published on August 10. By late 2025, cumulative e-CNY transactions reached 16.7 trillion yuan ($2.3 trillion) across roughly 3.48 billion transactions and about 230 million personal wallets. However, Alipay and WeChat Pay still control more than 90% of China’s third-party mobile payments, and much e-CNY usage remains driven by government initiatives rather than organic consumer preference.
The PBOC is also preparing the e-CNY for cross-border use. CBETS, the Cross-border e-CNY Transfer Services platform operated by a Shanghai firm under PBOC management, signed its first 26 direct participants in June, including Standard Chartered Bank (China) and overseas branches of Chinese banks in Thailand, Singapore, Laos, Qatar, and other markets. Some crypto industry observers argue the expansion deepens a centralized surveillance architecture that contrasts with Bitcoin’s decentralization and financial freedom principles.
