On April 18, at the "Digital Payment and Digital Currency" sub-forum held at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2021, Zhou Xiaochuan, Vice Chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia and former Governor of the People's Bank of China, and Li Bo, the new Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China Attend and share your views and experiences on the above hot topics in the market.

At the end of 2019, a reporter from Caijing reported exclusively that, led by the People's Bank of China, the four major state-owned commercial banks of Industry, Agriculture, China, and Construction, and the three major telecoms of China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom The central bank's legal digital currency pilot project jointly participated by operators will be implemented in Shenzhen, Suzhou and other places.

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The scope of the digital renminbi pilot project is about to expand

In the past period of time, the central bank has launched a series of initiatives in the digitization of the renminbi, and has launched pilot projects in many regions of the country.

"So far, the pilot project has been quite successful." Talking about the previous pilot project of digital renminbi, Li Bo summarized three experiences.

First, the two-tier system works. The two-tier system of digital currency is actually the same as physical currency. Our two-tier system is compatible with the current currency and banking system, thereby ensuring that the risks in the process of financial disintermediation are minimized.

Secondly, Li Bo mentioned a kind of controllable anonymity, or well-managed anonymity. "Our multi-level system is fundamentally anonymized for small transactions. It can be traced for large transactions. Such a design is an ideal feature of CBDC (central bank digital currency)." Li Bo said.

Also, be able to experiment with a hybrid system. Li Bo pointed out that the central bank's digital renminbi is linked to the account system, or quasi-account system, or token system, "this can achieve different degrees of coupling under different technical solutions, and such a system is a fairly open system. "

Regarding the further promotion of the digital renminbi in the future, Li Bo said that there are several things to do before the national promotion of the digital renminbi, and we must continue to do a good job in the pilot work to increase and expand the scope of the pilot projects. In order to allow the pilot project to cover more usage scenarios and further strengthen the ecosystem construction during the pilot process, Li Bo revealed that the central bank is now considering more scenarios and more cities for the pilot. "For example, during the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, we will make the digital renminbi not only available to domestic users, but also to international users and international guests."

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The current focus of digital renminbi development is to promote domestic use

In addition to the progress of the digital renminbi, the internationalization of the renminbi is also a topic of concern in the current market.

Zhou Xiaochuan said that China is a very large retail market, and the starting point of the digital renminbi is to do a good job in the retail system. The improvement of the efficiency of the retail system is the basis for all other businesses. At present, it is mainly carried out in China, and there are still many complicated issues in cross-border payment in the future.

"This matter is actually not that simple, because each country has its own macro-control situation, it needs to have its own currency sovereignty, some countries are different from other countries in terms of exchange rate system, and some countries have certain The degree of foreign exchange control." Zhou Xiaochuan mentioned.

Li Bo added that the current focus of the development of the digital RMB is to promote its domestic use. "As far as the internationalization of the RMB is concerned, we have stated many times that this is a natural process. Our goal is by no means to replace the US dollar or the US dollar." Other international currencies, our goal is to let the market make a choice and achieve further internationalization.”

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Crypto assets are not currencies and must be strictly regulated

Since the end of 2020, under the background of loose global liquidity, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have become investment targets of many international institutions, and their prices have hit record highs one after another. It is worth noting that the People's Bank of China has always taken a tougher attitude towards cryptocurrency transactions.

"We believe that Bitcoin and stablecoins are encrypted assets. Encrypted assets are investment options, not currencies themselves, but alternative investments." Li Bo said that many countries, including China, are also studying encrypted assets as an investment tool. What kind of regulatory environment and regulatory rules should be in place for investment methods, "It is also necessary to ensure that speculation in this type of assets will not cause serious financial risks. This must be done."

Li Bo also revealed that the central bank will continue to maintain the current measures and practices before the regulatory rules come out.

In addition to Bitcoin, Li Bo also talked about the regulation of stablecoins. In Li Bo's view, if such encrypted assets are to become widely used payment solutions, stronger rules are needed, "just like banks or quasi-banking financial institutions are strictly regulated." Li Bo said bluntly.