Regulation
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The People’s Bank of China, when developing the digital yuan (e-CNY), must strike a “fine balance” between privacy and the fight against illegal activity. This was stated by the governor of the regulator Yi Gang, writes Bloomberg.
“Anonymity and full disclosure is not as simple as black and white,” the official said during a speech at the Hong Kong FinTech Week conference.
The regulator aims to provide privacy protection and financial security through “managed anonymity,” he said. And Gang clarified that parties not directly involved in the transaction will not be able to identify the personal data of consumers.
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China has been testing e-CNY for three years. Tests were held in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong’an, Shanghai, Hainan, Changsha, Xi’an, Qingdao, Dalian and the Winter Olympic Games area.
In July 2021, authorities in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, tested a digital yuan with pre-programmed use cases.
In the spring of 2022, the former head of the People’s Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan, noted that e-CNY is primarily intended for the public and merchants, and not to replace SWIFT or “weaponize the currency.”
The former functionary then added that the digital yuan could be adapted for cross-border payments in the future, but in this case, the CBDC will still be focused on retail users.
Recall that in September, the media reported on the expansion of e-CNY testing to four provinces.
According to the People’s Bank of China, the cumulative volume of digital asset transactions reached 100.04 billion yuan (~$14 billion) at the end of summer 2022.
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