Digital Yuan Pilot Expands into Wealth Management, Securities & Education

The central People’s Bank of China (PBoC)’s digital yuan is set to expand into the world of wealth management – and has also broken new ground in the field of education.

According to Shanghai Securities News, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed brokerage and investment bank China Galaxy Securities will allow digital yuan-paying customers access to over-the-counter wealth management products.

The company will roll out the products to a select number of customers in Beijing and other parts of the digital yuan pilot zone. But, eventually, customers around the country will be able to put their digital yuan holdings into public funds and other investment vehicles.

The firm has some 13 million brokerage customers. Further moves could see the company – thus far the only brokerage to have been granted PBoC permission to deal with the digital yuan in this manner – offer digital yuan users securities-buying options.

Wealth Management, Securities…and Now Education Firsts for Digital Yuan

Per Zhejiang Online, the education-related effort is a collaboration between the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Finance, the Hangzhou Gongshu District budgetary authorities, and a branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China – one of China’s biggest domestic banking players. The bank has been particularly active in the digital yuan pilot space.

The bodies have opened what they called a “digital yuan non-tax payment channel.” This means that citizens can use this channel to pay local authorities for services outside the scope of local taxation – such as kindergarten tuition fees.

Separate channels already exist for citizens in Hangzhou who wish to pay their local taxes using the digital yuan.

The newspaper gave the example of the Kyoto Experimental Kindergarten, in Hangzhou – which has added digital yuan payment options to its payments platform. Previously, parents had to pay fees via either bank transfer or the Alipay e-payments network.

The news comes days after the Chinese e-commerce behemoth Meituan announced that it would be giving away digital yuan tokens and offline “hard” wallets to celebrate the Lunar New Year. The company is one of many now promoting the coin as a payment tool on their platforms.