Vice Governor of the Central Bank Lu Lei: Digital RMB will explore new models for cross-border payments

The Vice Governor of the People's Bank of China, Lu Lei, stated that the central bank attaches great importance to cross-border payment cooperation with Hong Kong, exploring the use of various financial technology innovations to actively promote the interconnection of cross-border payments and facilitate the integrated development of the economies of both regions.

In his speech at the Hong Kong FinTech Week Startup Festival, Lu Lei mentioned the continuous expansion of the Renminbi Cross-Border Payment System (CIPS) business in Hong Kong. In recent years, the system has gradually added the fund settlement functions for the Bond Connect Northbound and Southbound, and launched Hong Kong dollar payment clearing services. As of the end of September, there are 11 direct participants and 120 indirect participants in Hong Kong, providing safe and efficient cross-border clearing and settlement services for international trade and investment financing.

He also said that efforts are being made to actively promote the interconnection and cooperation of the two regions' fast payment systems. The Cross-Border Payment Link was successfully launched in June this year, providing residents of both regions with online rapid bilateral local currency and bilateral Renminbi remittance services. Currently, the system is operating smoothly, with normal business processing and positive public feedback.

Lu Lei pointed out the need to deepen the interconnection of cross-border QR code payments. Recently, the People's Bank of China organized the establishment of a unified gateway for cross-border QR code payments, serving as a unified interface for conducting cross-border QR code payment cooperation, further facilitating cross-border QR code payment collaboration between institutions in both regions.

He expressed that in the future, the digital Renminbi will be used to explore new solutions for cross-border payments, including promoting multilateral central bank digital currency bridge cooperation and exploring new paradigms for cross-border payments; relying on the digital Renminbi cross-border payment platform to provide Chinese solutions for central bank digital currency cross-border payment cooperation; and building a dual platform of blockchain and digital assets to activate a new engine for the value internet.