Abstract:

A Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is a new form of central bank money accessible to the public, accepted as a means of payment, legal tender, safe store of value by all citizens, businesses, and government agencies. Undoubtedly, the pandemic has turbocharged a global financial technology revolution.

Central bank digital currencies have been referred to as “the future of payments”, or even “the future of money”, and not without reason.

The Digital Yuan is a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), and CBDCs are not cryptocurrencies, even though there is of course some relation between both categories.

In April 2020, after several years of work (the research commenced in 2014), the Chinese Government announced the starting of the tests of the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), DCEP (Digital Currency Electronic Payment) or Digital Yuan.

The tests in the Mainland have proved to be very successful, to the point that the People's Bank of China (PBOC) launched the Digital Yuan wallet apps for Android and iOS in early January, 2022, and on the day of the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, there were reportedly more transactions made in China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) than through Visa.

Even though, according to a report published by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) in early 2020, 80% of Central Banks in the world are currently working on CBDCs (some are just at an initial research stage, though), Asia seems to be the place where CBDCs arouse more interest. In this sense, the major economy leading the CBDC race in Asia (and in the whole world) is China.

In this seminar, I will analyze what opportunities the Digital Yuan will offer to Mainland China, but also to Macau and to the rest of the Greater Bay Area.

About the Speaker:

Oriol works as Co-Leader of the Financial Inclusion and CBDCs Working Groups at the Global Impact FinTech (GIFT) Forum, Strategic Advisor at a Hong Kong-based WealthTech company, ETFCool, Strategic Advisor at Alpha Bright Asset Management (Hong Kong), Mentor at R3 (Singapore), Mentor at Cyberport (Hong Kong), Mentor at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park (HKSTP), FinTech Mentor at F10 Incubator & Accelerator (Singapore), Blockchain Mentor at Tribe (Singapore) and also FinTech Mentor at Rise by Barclays (London and Mumbai).

Oriol is Fellow at the Digital Euro Association (D€A) and at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), as well as Honorary Fellow at the Asian Institute of International Financial Law -AIIFL- at the University of Hong Kong (HKU).

He is member of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong, the Singapore Fintech Association (SFA) as well as FinTech Australia.

Furthermore, he publishes articles in several media, including China Daily (both the Global and Hong Kong Edition) and Macau Business.

He has given talks and seminars on the Chinese Financial System, Central Bank Digital Currencies and the Digital Yuan in several universities in the US, Canada, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as in international conferences, like the recent Israel/UAE Fintech Week, the Future of Fintech Saudi Arabia event and the Greater Bay Area Blockchain Week.