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China and Japan are continuing their respective pilot projects for central bank-issued digital currencies, or CBDCs.
On March 26, the Bank of Japan announced that it had established the Central Bank Digital Currency Liaison and Coordination Committee to meet with the private sector on the next CBDC proof of concept, or PoC, declaring:
“The Bank, through this committee, will share details and provide updates on the PoC with the private sector and government and seek to consult on future steps to facilitate the smooth implementation of the PoC.”
The announcement also stated that the bank has been preparing to conduct a pilot CBDC since October 2020 and that it will officially begin Phase 1 of its pilot CBDC project next month.
On March 23, Chinese state media Sina reported that six major state-owned banks had started testing wallet services for the digital renminbi. Customers can request bank whitelists to participate in the trial and, if approved, will receive sub-wallets connected to the central bank’s digital RMB app.
The central bank will consider requests on a case-by-case basis.
Approved applicants receive text messages with instructions on how to download and set up digital wallets by scanning a QR code. The sub-wallets are initially set with a payment limit of 1000 yuan per day, but users can request to increase the limit in the future. The wallets can optionally be linked to existing bank cards issued by the participating institutions.
The six participating banks are the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of China, the Bank of Communications, the China Construction Bank, the Postal Savings Bank of China, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
China has also been piloting its CBDC in the metropolitan centers of Beijing, Shenzhen, Suzhou and Chengdu since October.
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