12 new ones added! The number of digital RMB operating institutions has expanded to 22, with city commercial banks entering the market for the first time.

By Daily Economic News Reporter | Zhang Shoulin    Editor | Huang Sheng

On April 2, the People’s Bank of China officially announced the addition of 12 bank-type operators for digital RMB business, which have been connected to the central bank’s digital RMB system. As a result, the total number of digital RMB business operators has expanded from the original 10 to 22, marking a new stage in the development of the digital RMB ecosystem.

The 12 newly added banks include 7 national joint-stock banks and 5 city commercial banks. This is also the first time city commercial banks have entered the digital RMB operations business.

Operational footprint expands

The 12 newly added banks include 7 national joint-stock banks—China CITIC Bank, China Everbright Bank, Huaxia Bank, China Minsheng Bank, China Guangfa Bank, Pudong Development Bank, and Zhejiang Commercial Bank—along with 5 city commercial banks—Ningbo Bank, Jiangsu Bank, Beijing Bank, Nanjing Bank, and Suzhou Bank.

Along with the previously existing Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, Postal Savings Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, Industrial Bank, WeBank, and MYbank, the structure of digital RMB business operators has achieved a major expansion, reaching 22 institutions.

Of note is that this expansion had policy groundwork well in advance. In October 2025, at the opening ceremony of the Financial Street Forum annual conference, Pan Gongsheng, Governor of the People’s Bank of China, explicitly stated that the next step would be to study and optimize the positioning of digital RMB within the monetary hierarchy, to support more commercial banks in becoming operators of digital RMB business. The market widely believes that this expansion is the substantive implementation of that policy direction.

As of the end of November 2025, digital RMB had processed a cumulative 3.48 billion transactions, with a cumulative transaction value of RMB 16.7 trillion. Through the digital RMB app, 230 million personal wallets had been opened, and 18.84 million digital RMB unit wallets had been opened. The multi-Central Bank Digital Currency Bridge (mBridge) had processed 4,047 cross-border payment transactions, with a cumulative transaction value of RMB 387.2 billion (in RMB terms). Of this, digital RMB’s share of transaction amounts across different currency pairs is about 95.3%.

Digital RMB enters the 2.0 era

The expansion of operating institutions comes at a crucial window period as digital RMB moves from a “1.0 cash era” to a comprehensive upgrade into a “2.0 deposit-money era.”

On December 29, 2025, Lu Lei, Vice Governor of the People’s Bank of China, wrote an article explaining that the People’s Bank of China issued the “Action Plan on Further Strengthening the Digital RMB Management Service System and Related Financial Infrastructure Construction.” It announced that the new-generation digital RMB measurement framework, management system, operating mechanism, and ecosystem would formally begin implementation on January 1, 2026, and that digital RMB would transition from the digital cash era into the digital deposit-money era.

Lu Lei explained that, under the new institutional arrangements, digital RMB held by customers in commercial bank wallets is based on accounts and represents commercial bank liabilities. This marks digital RMB’s shift from the cash-based 1.0 version into the deposit-money-based 2.0 version. The action plan further clarifies that banking institutions may pay interest on customers’ real-name digital RMB wallet balances, and must comply with self-disciplinary agreements on deposit interest-rate pricing; wallet balances are included in the scope of deposit insurance coverage.

This transformation fundamentally changes the underlying positioning of digital RMB. Previously, digital RMB’s M0 (cash in circulation) positioning did not accrue interest, and its penetration in the high-frequency payment market on the C end was weak; commercial banks only served the function of safeguarding funds. With the arrival of the 2.0 era, it has activated the endogenous motivation for commercial banks to participate in the digital RMB ecosystem development.

Behind the expansion: improving accessibility and inclusiveness

In its expansion announcement, the central bank clearly stated “enhancing the inclusiveness of digital RMB services.” The expansion of institution members also extends digital RMB’s reach radius. The added 7 joint-stock banks have extensive outlets and customer bases nationwide, while the 5 city commercial banks occupy important positions in regional economies, with close cooperation with local government affairs.

In the cross-border domain, the digital RMB international operating center business platform has been officially put into operation, and it has rolled out a digital RMB cross-border digital payments platform, a digital RMB blockchain services platform, and a digital assets platform.

Among them, the cross-border digital payments platform is based on supporting RMB internationalization and cross-border use, exploring the use of legal digital currency to address pain points in traditional cross-border payments; the blockchain services platform is positioned to support standardized blockchain transaction switching and on-chain digital RMB payment services; and the digital assets platform is positioned to support compliant issuance, registration, custody, and trading of digital assets on-chain.

The latter two platforms—the digital RMB blockchain services platform and the digital assets platform—are built on the same blockchain infrastructure base, enabling linkage between the two platforms. They support delivery-versus-payment (DvP) settlement using a unified ledger, and explore feasible paths, within the existing regulatory framework, to improve the quality and efficiency of financial business services and reduce settlement risks.

The reporter also learned that the digital RMB cross-border digital payments platform has already been upgraded to “CBETS,” supporting overseas participants to connect via the “one-point access” gateway for digital RMB cross-border business and directly access intelligent digital payment services on both on-chain and off-chain business platforms 24/7.

Cover image source: Daily Economic News media resource database