The Chinese subsidiary of Singapore’s DBS Bank has launched a merchant charging solution for China’s central bank digital currency e-CNY (CBDC).

Only a small number of Chinese banks have direct access to the yuan’s digital central bank system, and others work indirectly. In this case, DBS is working with UnionPay Merchant Services. UnionPay is the state organization which is the main bank card service provider in China. Its function is similar to Visa and Mastercard.

“We have received great interest from various customers for the solution since its launch, and we are pleased to have completed the first e-CNY collection for a customer – a catering company in Shenzhen,” said Ginger Cheng, CEO of DBS Bank (China) .

In May, another foreign bank, BNP Paribas China, launched a yuan digital wallet.

Another DBS executive, Lim Soon Chon, added: “We hope to use this launch to explore new digital payment solutions, such as CBDC cross-border payments.”

The latest e-CNY statistics are from the Ministry of Commerce from late last year, putting the amount in circulation at 13.61 billion yuan ($1.9 billion). The central bank last issued figures for August 2022, focusing on transaction volumes and values. Those numbers can be expected to rise soon as CBDC rolls out more broadly and across financial markets, including commodity settlements.

DBS and digital currency

Meanwhile, DBS Bank wanted to highlight its innovative track record when it comes to digital currency. Along with Temasek and JP Morgan, he is a co-founder of Partior, the blockchain-based network for multi-currency interbank payments.

He has also been involved in numerous lawsuits with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), including the Ubin Project which led to the founding of Partior. Most recently, he participated in Project Guardian for CBDC combined with DeFi and Project Orchid for the programmability of a retail Singapore dollar.