China's Central Bank Visits US on Blockchain Research Trip

Representatives from China's central bank and several research organizations visited San Francisco last week to find out more about blockchain technology and related financial regulation in the U.S.

The trip saw Yao Qian, director of the People's Bank of China's Digital Currency Research Institute, as well as delegates from fintech research bodies such as Shanghai New Financial Research Institute (SFI) and Peking University Digital Finance Research Center (IDF) meet with local startups from August 23 to 24.

According to a report by online media site Sohu, the visit was made as part of ongoing research led by the IDF and SFI, which is planned to be published in a report detailing the status of U.S. fintech development and regulation.

The delegates initially met with startups Prosper, a lending company; Sofi, an initiative targeting student loans; blockchain startup Circle; cryptocurrency exchange service Coinbase and DLT payments firm Ripple.

Additional conversations were reportedly centered around regulation.

According to Sohu, Qian stated in a discussion that "the issue of legal digital currency is of great significance" for China, and spoke about the necessity for traditional financial system stakeholders to set a strategy for blockchain technology.

Disclaimer: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Ripple.

Thank you for Bing Bin for her translation assistance.

Backpack image via Shutterstock