Financial News
Author: Hu Xueneng
2021-01-18 21:03
Last update date: 2021-01-18 21:03
Li Luren, Chairman of the Financial Development Council, said that the mainland is exploring the use of electronic renminbi in real life tests. He believes that the next step will be applied to cross-border payments between China and Hong Kong. As the world’s largest offshore renminbi market, Hong Kong is in a strategic position in the Greater Bay Area. Hong Kong can play a major role in promoting and expanding the potential of the use of e-renminbi, especially in cross-border environments.
The Deputy Director of the Bureau of Financial Services and the Treasury Chen Haolian said that in recent years, global central banks have actively considered the adoption of central bank digital currencies (CBDC). CBDC can improve payment efficiency and eliminate the need for banks to go through many layers, allowing real-time transactions, allowing governments and central banks to Track currency-related transactions of each unit, so as to combat illegal activities such as tax evasion and money laundering.
Chen Haolian pointed out that in Hong Kong, financial authorities and supervisory authorities have been establishing local financial infrastructure to provide a multi-currency, multi-level platform that can connect Hong Kong's payment system with nearby international systems and facilitate faster and convenient cross-border. Paid.
Bénédicte Nolens, director of the Hong Kong Center for the Innovation Hub of the Bank for International Settlements, said that CBDC at the retail level can be said to replace physical banknotes. If you want retail CBDC to replace central bank banknotes, you need a system that has as much trust as bank banknotes.
She said that any system used to replace banknotes must be supported by trust and must be better than the existing system. She believes that the opportunity lies in the cross-border environment.
Wholesale-level CBDC is mainly used for very large transactions, or low-volume transactions, and will not replace physical banknotes. Wholesale-level CBDC mainly makes transactions less expensive, but faster and reduces risks.
PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Encryption Technology Lead Partner Lion Hengli said that the current difficulty facing cross-border payments is that the current average fee rate is 7%. If it is done in emerging countries, the rate may be higher.
Li Luren Financial Development Bureau RMB