Alipay flashes digital RMB

The testing process of the digital RMB is accelerating. After the six major banks promoted the digital RMB wallets, Alipay also joined in.

Written by Zhang Haodong

Produced by | Payment Encyclopedia

Following in the footsteps of ICBC, ABC, BOC, CCB, BOC and Postal Savings Bank of China, MyBank’s digital RMB is now available after being displayed in gray for a period of time, becoming the seventh digital RMB pilot bank, while WeBank is still unavailable.

Testing has found that it is not possible to directly open an MYbank wallet in the Digital RMB APP, and one can only add to an already opened MYbank wallet.

While the support for the MYbank wallet has been opened, Alipay is also conducting small-scale tests on the digital RMB, and a digital RMB entrance has appeared in the Alipay of some users.

It is understood that whether or not the entrance to the digital RMB can be seen has nothing to do with the version of Alipay. Even if Alipay is updated to the latest version, the function of the digital RMB will not be displayed. Users who are not qualified to experience it can only continue to wait.

At present, only a few users can see the entrance to the Alipay digital RMB. By clicking on the Alipay digital RMB option, the interface will jump to open the Ant Financial Services Group’s digital RMB wallet, adding an entrance to the Ant Financial Services Group’s digital RMB wallet.

According to Alipay's reminder, the same natural person can only open one real-name wallet, and one Alipay account can only open one wallet, including real-name and anonymous.

Similar to the digital RMB wallets of the six major banks, the digital RMB wallet opened by Ant Financial through Alipay also has a level division, with a total of four levels. The rights and interests of real-name authentication are higher than anonymous use.

A level one wallet is the highest level and requires users to complete multiple operations, including face-to-face interviews, identity recognition, and authentication of ID number and mobile phone number. Only after these authentications can the digital RMB wallet be upgraded to level one. There is no limit on single transfer consumption and daily cumulative transfer consumption for a level one wallet.

Ant Financial's digital RMB wallet now provides services such as transfer, payment, and bank card management, which are almost the same as the basic functions of the digital RMB wallets of the six major banks. However, placing Ant Financial's digital RMB wallet in Alipay has undoubtedly upgraded the experience.

In addition, the digital RMB wallet of Ant Financial can be used in most Alibaba scenarios, covering Tmall Supermarket, Hema, Ele.me, etc. Many offline merchants in Shanghai have also completed access, such as 7fentian and Hefu Lamian.

The Alipay APP serves more than 1 billion users. By adding the entrance to the MyBank digital Renminbi wallet to Alipay, on the one hand, it can leverage Alipay's user advantages to attract more users to open MyBank digital RMB wallets in the future. On the other hand, it can also be convenient for users without having to download additional APPs.

For Alipay users, although they cannot fully experience the digital RMB at this stage, as the pilot scope expands in the future, more and more users may be able to see the entrance to the digital RMB in Alipay.

Opening up the Alipay channel is also of great significance to the promotion of digital RMB wallets. As one of the most widely used mobile payment methods, Alipay users will be more receptive to digital RMB, which can promote the popularization of digital RMB to a certain extent.

Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, once said that there is no competitive relationship between Alipay and the digital RMB, and the two do not belong to the same dimension. Alipay is a financial infrastructure, while the digital RMB is a payment tool.

Since the beginning of this year, the pilot program of digital RMB has been accelerating. In addition to JD.com, Bilibili, Meituan, Didi, SF Express, Tuniu, and Ctrip have all been connected to digital RMB. Now that merchants under Alibaba have been connected, the digital RMB lineup has become even stronger.

The six major banks have also put a lot of effort into promoting the digital RMB and are making every effort to promote the application of the digital RMB. Banks seem to have recently accelerated the review and approval of the digital RMB wallet whitelist, and users can experience the digital RMB wallet by applying for the whitelist.

The competition among major banks for digital RMB wallet users is becoming increasingly fierce, and Alipay is not willing to lag behind. The built-in digital RMB entrance will help Ant Financial to catch up in the digital RMB wallet business.