Chinese banks may be working on digital yuan wallets

The country’s four biggest banks, the state-owned quartet of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the China Construction Bank, the Agricultural Bank of China, and the Bank of China, have all been actively working with the central People’s Bank of China (PBoC) on the digital fiat rollout for over a year at least. 

Citizens in the country who have taken part in pilots for the digital currency have thus far been offered the option of receiving their handouts and payments in one of the four existing big four smartphone wallets.

Postal Savings Bank of China is developing an offline, smartphone-free ‘hard’ wallet that resembles a conventional credit card. The bank is, however, also developing its own smartphone app wallet, in parallel with the card offering. Bank of Communications, China’s fifth-biggest bank, is also working on its own wallet for the digital yuan.

‘Big four’ apps offer interoperability solutions that link existing digital yuan wallets with the banking platforms of both the Postal Savings Bank and the Bank of Communications, as well as two other banks – the corporate-owned China Merchants Bank and the Hong Kong-based China CITIC Bank.