12 new ones added! The number of digital RMB operating institutions has expanded to 22, with city commercial banks entering the market for the first time.

Reporter: Zhang Shulin｜Editor: Huang Sheng

On April 2, the People’s Bank of China officially announced that 12 additional bank-type digital yuan business operation institutions were added and connected to the central bank’s digital yuan system. As a result, the total number of digital yuan business operation institutions expanded from the original 10 to 22, marking a new stage in the development of the digital yuan ecosystem.

The 12 newly added banks include 7 national joint-stock banks and 5 city commercial banks. This is also the first time city commercial banks have entered the digital yuan operation business.

Expansion of the Operating Map

The 12 newly added banks include 7 national joint-stock banks—China CITIC Bank, China Everbright Bank, Huaxia Bank, China Minsheng Bank, 广发银行, Pudong Development Bank, Zhejiang Cbank—along with 5 city commercial banks—Ningbo Bank, Jiangsu Bank, Bank of Beijing, Nanjing Bank, Suzhou Bank.

In addition to the previously existing Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, Postal Savings Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, Industrial Bank, WeBank, and MYbank, the digital yuan business operation institutions have achieved an important expansion in their overall configuration, reaching 22.

Worth noting is that this expansion was preceded by policy groundwork. In October 2025, Pan Gongsheng, Governor of the People’s Bank of China, stated clearly at the opening ceremony of the Financial Street Forum annual conference that the next step would be to study and optimize the positioning of the digital yuan in the money layers, supporting more commercial banks to become digital yuan business operation institutions. The market generally believes that this expansion is the substantive implementation of this policy direction.

By the end of November 2025, the digital yuan had cumulatively processed 3.48 billion transactions, with a cumulative transaction amount of 16.7 trillion yuan. Through the digital yuan APP, 230 million personal wallets had been opened, and 18.84 million unit wallets had been opened. The multi-CBDC bridge (mBridge) had cumulatively processed 4,047 cross-border payment transactions, with a cumulative transaction amount equivalent to 387.2 billion yuan, of which the share of digital yuan in transactions across different currencies was about 95.3%.

Digital Yuan Enters the 2.0 Era

This expansion of operating institutions comes at a crucial window period as the digital yuan is fully upgrading from the “1.0 cash era” to the “2.0 deposit money era.”

On December 29, 2025, Deputy Governor Lu Lei wrote an article introducing that the People’s Bank of China released an action plan titled “Action Plan for Further Strengthening the Digital Yuan Management and Service System and the Construction of Related Financial Infrastructure.” The plan announced that the new-generation digital yuan measurement framework, management system, operating mechanism, and ecosystem will be formally launched and implemented on January 1, 2026, and the digital yuan will move from the digital cash era to the digital deposit money era.

Lu Lei explained that under the new institutional arrangements, the digital yuan in customers’ digital yuan wallets at commercial banks is based on accounts and constitutes commercial bank liabilities. This signifies that the digital yuan has transitioned from the cash-based 1.0 version to the deposit-money-based 2.0 version. The action plan further clarified that banking institutions may pay interest on the balances of customers’ real-name digital yuan wallets, and that they must comply with the self-disciplinary agreements on deposit interest rate pricing; wallet balances are included in the deposit insurance protection scope.

This transformation fundamentally changes the underlying positioning of the digital yuan. Previously, the digital yuan’s M0 (cash in circulation) positioning did not pay interest, and its penetration in the high-frequency C-end payment market was weak; commercial banks only assumed the function of custody of funds. With the arrival of the 2.0 era, it has activated commercial banks’ intrinsic motivation to participate in the digital yuan ecosystem development.

Behind the Expansion: Enhancing Inclusiveness

In its expansion announcement, the central bank clearly stated “enhancing the inclusiveness of digital yuan services.” The expansion of institution members also expands the reach of digital yuan. The newly added 7 joint-stock banks have extensive branches and customer bases across the country, while the 5 city commercial banks occupy important positions in regional economies and closely cooperate with local government affairs.

In the cross-border field, the digital yuan international operating center business platform has been officially put into operation, and it has launched the digital yuan cross-border digital payments platform, the digital yuan blockchain service platform, and the digital asset platform.

Among them, the cross-border digital payments platform is designed to support RMB internationalization and cross-border use, exploring the use of legal digital currency to address pain points in traditional cross-border payments; the blockchain service platform is positioned to support standardized blockchain transaction routing and on-chain digital yuan payment services; and the digital asset platform is positioned to support on-chain issuance, registration, custody, and compliant trading of digital assets.

The latter two platforms—the digital yuan blockchain service platform and the digital asset platform—are built on the same blockchain infrastructure, enabling the two platforms to work in tandem. They can support delivery-versus-payment (DvP) settlement using a unified ledger, and explore a feasible path, within the current regulatory framework, to improve the quality and efficiency of financial business services and reduce settlement risks.

The reporter also learned that the digital yuan cross-border digital payments platform has now been upgraded to “CBETS” and supports overseas participants to connect “one point” through the digital yuan cross-border business gateway, enabling direct access to 7×24-hour intelligent digital payment services on both the on-chain and off-chain business platforms.

Cover image source: Daily Economic News media resources library