![]() ![]() Sign-up is possible through seven traditional commercial banks and two online banks, all Chinese: Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province (one of the locations for the Winter Olympics). Tencent’s WeChat Pay is testing a system that allows customers to make payments by simply scanning their faces in several retail chains in China. Tencent Holdings Ltd announced on Thursday that it now supports digital yuan payment through its proprietary mobile wallet WeChat Pay. Shortly after the launch of the app, the Tencent-owned messaging app and payment platform WeChat announced that it would begin allowing users to select the digital yuan as a payment option to pay for services. With over 1.2 billion users, of which around 750 million are active on a daily basis, this development could give significant exposure to the digital yuan, which some analysts say faces stiff competition from other online payment platforms – including WeChat itself. The digital yuan, officially called the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DC/EP), is a digitised version of China’s legal currency, the renminbi (RMB). It is issued by China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). It is designed mainly to be used for high-frequency, small-scale retail purchases and transactions. The digital yuan forms part of the monetary base (M0) of the country, which means the digital currency makes up a portion of the ‘cash’ that is in circulation. is facing a potential record fine for violations of some central bank regulations by its WeChat Pay mobile. This new feature enables users to conveniently make payments using their palm prints on face recognition devices. HONG KONGChinese technology giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. ![]() It is important to note that the e-CNY is not a form of cryptocurrency, since it does not operate based on blockchain and is issued by a central bank (i.e., it is not decentralised like other forms of cryptocurrency). WeChat officially launched Palm Pay on May 21. ![]() The PBOC first began trialling the digital yuan app in April 2020 when it launched internal testing in four cities. This pilot programme has since gradually been expanded through invites and cash incentives to eventually reach 140 million registered users by October 2021, according to the PBOC. The spread for Tencent’s dollar bond due 2030 widened 22 basis points to 228 basis points, according to Bloomberg. In May 2021 it was also announced that the e-CNY would be integrated into Alibaba’s services ecosystem. Tencent’s shares closed Monday at their lowest level in almost two years. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |