JD.com, one of China’s largest e-commerce companies, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have been working together on a digital yuan supply chain financing solution. The new tool, developed by JD Technology, will be a comprehensive and programmable CBDC smart contract solution. It is expected to be showcased at an upcoming international trade fair in Beijing.
The solution is designed to provide a range of services for first-time users, such as online wallet opening, fund supervision, and improved financing controls. It will also help improve settlement efficiency, traceability, and security. Additionally, it will give small, medium, and micro enterprises better verification, risk identification, and credit guarantees.
JD and the ICBC have been collaborating with the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) on the e-CNY pilot for a few years. The firm’s digital yuan payment system has already gained traction in pilot zone cities – around 15 million people are using the CBDC to purchase goods on its platform, and nearly 20 million wallets have been opened to date.
JD claims that the compound annual growth of new CBDC users exceeds 100%. They have also processed over $412 million worth of e-CNY transactions on their platform. The company is now working on CBDC solutions for city governments in the pilot zone, including a digital yuan software as a service (SaaS) platform for government organs and financial services providers.
Recently, there have been reports of an increase in cross-border payments between Hong Kong and the Mainland due to the digital yuan adoption drive in Hong Kong. JD.com is one of the firms currently working on Hong Kong-based e-CNY solutions, along with the Bank of China. The companies will demonstrate their supply chain financing solution at the Shougang Park event on September 2-6.
