HSBC China rolls out e-CNY services for corporate clients

HSBC Bank’s China entity has started to offer e-CNY services for corporate clients, making it the first foreign bank in the country to provide services linked to the central bank digital currency for both retail and corporate customers, the bank said. 

The e-CNY, also known as the digital yuan, is the digital currency issued by the People’s Bank of China. It is a digital version of the Chinese yuan (CNY) and is meant to replace some of the cash in circulation.

HSBC Bank (China) Co. Ltd. said in a statement on Friday that its corporate clients can now link their corporate bank accounts with digital yuan accounts to manage their assets.

The bank said that it has helped an educational group to receive payments in e-CNY for the company’s six branches in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Jiaxing and Suzhou.

The People’s Bank of China, the central bank, launched the digital yuan pilots in late 2019, and it has expanded its digital yuan trial to dozens of regions across the country. China has also started to pay its state employees in digital yuan in some cities, but the South China Morning Post reported last month that many users are still reluctant to pay with the e-CNY mainly due to functional limitations and privacy concerns.

Last month, Hong Kong announced that users in the region could set up personal e-CNY wallets for cross-border payments in an attempt to broaden the usage of the digital yuan among Hong Kong residents.