A digital yuan wallet app launched by China’s central bank will include an electricity bill payment feature designed by the country’s State Grid, according to Economic Information Daily, a local financial media outlet.
Fast facts
- Users will be able to pay their electricity bills through the digital yuan app directly and do not need to link payment to a bank card, unlike other third-party mobile payment apps.
- The new function will be tested in nine cities and regions, including Xiong’an New Area, Suzhou, Chengdu, Shanghai, Xi’an, Dalian, Changsha and Qingdao, and at the Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022.
- The electricity bill payment function marks another expansion of the e-CNY ecosystem and boost to the new currency’s circulation in China.
- Digital cash has been given away in nine major cities to stimulate consumption, and public transportation systems in Beijing, Chengdu and Suzhou recently started to accept digital yuan payments.
- In July 2021, the Peoples’s Bank of China published its first white paper on the digital yuan. The white paper said e-CNY trials had seen nearly 21 million personal wallets opened and transactions worth a total of around 34.5 billion yuan (US$5.3 billion).