China has added 8 banks to the digital yuan network

The central bank has increased the total number of operators to 30. The new list includes Ping An Bank, Hengfeng Bank, China Bohai Bank, Bank of Shanghai, and others. They can fill gaps in services for regional small and medium-sized enterprises and cross-border trade. The new banks will begin providing services after completing operational and technical preparations.

The expansion of the list followed the addition of 12 institutions in April. At that time, city commercial banks joined the group of operators. Before the addition of new operators this year, only 10 banks were eligible to act as operators. Industrial Bank was the last to join, in 2022.

In January, China allowed commercial banks to pay interest on digital yuan wallets. Meanwhile, the user base of China’s CBDC exceeds 230 million wallets.