Bank of China trials offline payments for digital yuan via SIM cards

Bank of China, 1 of the largest state-owned banks successful China, is presently conducting trials for a caller offline outgo strategy that connects to SIM cards. This outgo method is designed specifically for the integer yuan, besides known arsenic the e-CNY, which is China's cardinal slope integer currency (CBDC) presently being tested.

This announcement was made by the slope connected Monday successful a societal media post, revealing their concern with telecommunication operators China Telecom and China Unicom and their volition to commence investigating connected Tuesday.

The slope plans to alteration users to marque telephone payments by integrating its e-CNY app with specialized "super SIM cards" that person near-field connection capabilities. Users simply request to bring their mobile phones adjacent the constituent of merchantability terminals for payment, eliminating the request for the telephone to beryllium turned on.

Screenshot of Bank of China's societal media announcement.  Source: Wechat

This integration allows transactions to beryllium processed adjacent erstwhile the telephone is powered off. However, the slope stated that these SIM paper outgo functions volition lone beryllium accessible connected circumstantial Android phones successful a fewer trial regions of China. In January of past year, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's cardinal bank, launched a proceedings mentation of an e-CNY app.

This follows China's caller inaugural to grow the use cases for its cardinal slope integer currency for its Belt and Road Initiative and cross-border trades. The caller experimentation plans to widen integer yuan usage to wage taxes and inferior services successful the metropolis successful the future.

In the Chinese metropolis of Guanzhou, it is present imaginable to pay for nationalist autobus rides with the integer yuan CBDC connected 10 transit routes, which is simply a archetypal for the country. To bash so, passengers simply request to download the e-CNY app, deposit funds and scan the QR codification located successful the autobus outgo conception to wage for their ride. 

Related: Chinese metropolis of Jinan accepts CBDC payments for autobus rides

Meanwhile, Hong Kong successful May launched an e-HKD aviator program aft the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released a whitepaper successful October 2021 connected a imaginable retail CBDC. The HKMA, Hong Kong’s de facto cardinal bank, said successful a September consultation paper that it volition research the anticipation of cross-border payments linking e-CNY and e-HKD.

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