TL;DR
- The PBOC published its 2026-2030 five-year plan and included the digital yuan among its core tasks for the next five years.
- China has allowed commercial banks to pay interest on e-CNY balances and is advancing cross-border tests with Singapore and mBridge.
- The mBridge project recorded a 176% year-over-year jump in corporate clients and moved 500 million yuan in a single equity transaction.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) formally established the development of the digital yuan as a strategic state priority in its reform plan known as the “fifteenth five-year plan” for the 2026-2030 period, accompanied by nine sectoral action plans. The e-CNY was included under the fifth axis of the roadmap, dedicated to financial infrastructure and central bank services, alongside improvements in payment systems, development of the credit reporting sector, and strengthening of anti-money laundering standards.
The plan also dedicates a specific section to the international sector, where the PBOC commits to expanding the use of the renminbi in trade and investment, broadening the cross-border payments network and developing offshore RMB markets, while consolidating Shanghai as a global financial hub and reinforcing Hong Kong’s positioning.
Evolution of the PBOC and the Digital Yuan
At the domestic level, the moves are gradual but consistent. In early 2026, the PBOC introduced a regulatory framework allowing commercial banks to pay interest on their clients’ e-CNY balances, a measure aimed at incentivizing everyday adoption of the digital currency.
The project has deeper roots: research began in 2014 under the name DCEP and the digital yuan was officially launched in April 2022, with free distributions in pilot cities to promote early adoption. At the 2026 National People’s Congress, deputy Fu Xiguo proposed revising the PBOC’s organic law —last updated in 2003— arguing that the current regulation does not recognize the e-CNY as legal tender.
Cross-Border Expansion: mBridge and Singapore
On the international front, progress is moving at a faster pace. The province of Guangdong published a draft of its own five-year plan that will be open to public comments until September 5, calling for an expansion of cross-border e-CNY payment pilots.
The first cross-border digital payment between China and Singapore has already taken place, where branches of ICBC settled approximately 10 million yuan in maritime freight charges through the CBETS platform, which was joined by 26 financial institutions in June. In parallel, the mBridge project —a multilateral settlement platform among the central banks of mainland China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia— recorded 176% growth year-over-year in corporate clients during the first half of the year.
The Industrial bank extended the service to Macau and used it to move 500 million yuan (approximately $74 million) in an equity transaction. The Fujian branch of the Bank of China, for its part, channeled more than HK$10 billion ($1.28 billion) through mBridge in what it described as the largest individual transfer executed to date on that platform.
