ChainCatcher news, Zhou Xiaochuan, Vice Chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia and former Governor of the People's Bank of China, delivered a New Year outlook, pointing out that the world will face four major changes by 2025: the international environment will remain turbulent, uncertainty in global economic recovery will increase, rapid development of AI technology will bring both opportunities and challenges, and the climate change crisis will intensify. He also emphasized three unchanging trends: the continuous strengthening of global South countries, Asia's promotion of inclusive economic globalization, and China's deepening of reform and opening up.Zhou Xiaochuan mentioned that global public debt is about to exceed $100 trillion, which will increase the external financing costs and exchange rate depreciation pressures for emerging markets and developing countries, posing challenges to the fiscal sustainability of developed countries. The impact of digital encrypted assets on global financial stability and security needs to be monitored.

ChainCatcher news, according to the People's Bank of China official account, the People's Bank of China work conference will be held from January 3 to 4, 2025. The conference pointed out that in 2024, the financial management and service capabilities will continue to improve, and the research and application of the digital renminbi will be steadily advanced.In 2025, further optimization of the central bank's financial management and services will be carried out, strengthening the legal protection of the central bank's duties. A multi-level and diversified payment service system will be improved. The integration of information technology systems will be promoted in an orderly manner. The multi-level credit reporting market will be vigorously developed. The central bank's financial services in rural areas will be continuously optimized. Solid work will be done in economic and financial research, comprehensive statistics of the financial industry, currency issuance, digital renminbi research and development, treasury management, and international assessments of anti-money laundering, among other tasks.

ChainCatcher news, according to the "Maoming City" WeChat public account, Maoming City (a prefecture-level city in Guangdong Province) is continuously promoting the pilot work of digital RMB. Recently, I learned from the Maoming branch of the People's Bank of China that the party and government agencies and public institutions in Maoming City have fully implemented the distribution of subsidies in digital RMB.In July this year, the Maoming Municipal Finance Bureau and the Maoming branch of the People's Bank of China jointly issued the "Notice on the Pilot Work of Distributing Subsidies in Digital RMB." According to the requirements of the "Notice," the party and government agencies and public institutions in Maoming City began to fully implement the distribution of subsidies in digital RMB starting in September. By the end of October, a total of 359 budget units in the city had implemented the distribution of subsidies in digital RMB, with a cumulative total of 75,883 instances of subsidies distributed to administrative agencies and public institutions, amounting to 81.738 million yuan.At the same time, Maoming is also promoting the quality, expansion, and efficiency of the digital RMB pilot work, expanding multi-channel payment methods. In the next step, Maoming City will continue to promote the distribution of salaries in digital RMB for all budget units in the city. Additionally, it will actively promote the construction of a digital RMB application demonstration area in the eastern section of the Maonan River in Maoming City.

ChainCatcher news, as of July 2024, the number of personal wallets for China's central bank digital currency (CBDC) e-CNY has reached 180 million, with a transaction volume exceeding 7.3 trillion yuan (approximately 1.02 trillion USD).According to Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, the digital yuan operates through account and value models, supports smart payments, and can be used in environments without network or electricity, demonstrating strong adaptability and flexibility.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, analysts say that over the past eight years, the price of Bitcoin has shown a positive correlation with the size of the Chinese central bank's balance sheet. The 30-day correlation coefficient between Bitcoin's price and the size of the Chinese central bank's balance sheet is 0.66. It has been positive except for 2016 and from the end of 2022 to 2023. On the other hand, Bitcoin's correlation with the Federal Reserve's balance sheet over 30 days is -0.88, the lowest level recorded since 2016.The Chinese central bank is considering launching an economic stimulus plan of up to 1 trillion yuan (approximately 142 billion USD) to boost the economy, which has led to a significant rise in Asian stock markets, particularly the notable increase in the CSI 300 index.Analysts believe that this stimulus plan may indirectly benefit Bitcoin, as it could increase investment in blockchain and cryptocurrency-related projects. This monetary easing policy may drive more capital into the digital asset space.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, Presto Research's analyst based in Singapore, Rick Maeda, pointed out that today's interest rate cut and reserve requirement ratio reduction by the People's Bank of China hardly triggered a reaction in the cryptocurrency market, but led to a rise in Asian stock markets, with the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index up 3.2% and the Shanghai Composite Index up 4.15%.The lack of response from Bitcoin to this news contrasts with the rise in Chinese stock indices, highlighting that its current beta seems to be more closely linked to Federal Reserve policy and the U.S. market, especially after last week's FOMC meeting, with the correlation to U.S. stocks nearing a two-year high.

ChainCatcher news, the chairman of the Shanghai Clearing House, Ma Jianyang, led a team to visit and investigate the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China. The director of the Digital Currency Research Institute, Mu Changchun, met and held discussions, and both parties signed a business cooperation agreement. The two sides conducted in-depth exchanges on topics such as the positioning of their respective financial infrastructure responsibilities, strategic planning, and innovation paths, and unanimously agreed to take the signing of the business cooperation agreement as an opportunity to provide precise and effective services for the central bank's duties and the high-quality development of the financial market through solid and orderly system connections and business collaboration, thereby implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and contributing to the realization of the goal of a strong financial nation.

ChainCatcher News: The Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China recently held a work meeting for 2024, which emphasized the need to persistently prevent and resolve financial risks. Strengthen risk monitoring in key areas. Properly handle risky institutions. Prevent and address risks related to speculation in virtual currency trading. Strictly investigate financial illegal activities. Deepen the governance of "funding chains" related to gambling and fraud. Enhance the effectiveness of anti-money laundering supervision. Establish a long-term mechanism for "credit repair" governance. Ensure additional supervision of systemically important financial institutions.The meeting also pointed out the need to continuously improve the level of basic financial services and deepen the innovative application of the digital renminbi. Explore innovative applications of the digital renminbi.

ChainCatcher news, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced new digital finance and capital market initiatives, including a cross-border digital yuan pilot between China and Singapore, allowing travelers from both countries to use digital yuan for tourism consumption in Singapore and China, in order to expand financial cooperation with China.

ChainCatcher News, the People's Bank of China and the Central Bank of the UAE have renewed a currency swap agreement in Hong Kong worth 35 billion RMB / 18 billion dirhams (4.9 billion USD), extending the bilateral currency swap agreement for five years to promote financial and economic ties. The two parties also signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Strengthening Cooperation in Central Bank Digital Currency to enhance technical cooperation in the development of central bank digital currencies. The renewed agreement will promote bilateral trade and strengthen financial cooperation between the two countries, and will facilitate the provision of liquidity to financial markets in local currencies, enabling more effective and efficient settlement of cross-border financial and trade transactions.

ChainCatcher News, the Financial Stability Bureau of the People's Bank of China published a column article titled "Effectively Preventing and Resolving Financial Risks, Firmly Upholding the Bottom Line of Preventing Systemic Risks." The article points out that under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the People's Bank of China closely focuses on three tasks: serving the real economy, preventing and controlling financial risks, and deepening financial reform. Following the basic principles of "stabilizing the overall situation, coordinating comprehensively, implementing differentiated policies, and precisely defusing risks," it resolutely fights the tough battle against major financial risks, improves the system and mechanism for financial stability work, and orderly addresses a number of prominent risk points that are significant, urgent, and systemic, effectively safeguarding the national economic and financial security and the overall stability of the financial system.In addition, the article notes that a comprehensive cleanup and rectification of the financial order has achieved good results in the special rectification of internet financial risks. All P2P lending institutions have ceased operations, and the rectification work in areas such as internet asset management, equity crowdfunding, internet insurance, virtual currency trading, and internet foreign exchange trading has been basically completed. The article emphasizes the deepening of risk rectification for local financial asset exchanges, "pseudo-gold exchanges," and third-party wealth management companies, as well as a severe crackdown on illegal fundraising and a firm curb on domestic virtual currency trading speculation. Efforts to increase the investigation and handling of money laundering cases continue to be intensified.

ChainCatcher news, according to Shanghai Securities News, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) Operations Management Department held a press conference on April 27 for the second quarter of 2023. Zhou Dan, director of the Survey and Statistics Division of the PBOC Operations Management Department, stated that Beijing is further deepening the pilot work of the digital renminbi. Zhou revealed that since the full-area pilot of the digital renminbi in Beijing began in March 2022, the PBOC Operations Management Department has guided local operating institutions to focus on themes such as inclusive livelihood and support for agriculture and small enterprises, conducting various digital renminbi pilot activities 191 times in small, high-frequency scenarios such as transportation and shopping, with a total investment of 87.83 million yuan, significantly promoting consumption and playing a positive role in the construction of Beijing as an international consumption center city. (Source link)

ChainCatcher news, according to CCTV news, as of now, the People's Bank of China has launched digital yuan pilot programs in some areas of 17 provinces. In 2022, the pilot areas conducted nearly 30 digital yuan consumption red envelope activities around themes such as "promoting consumption" and "low-carbon travel."The People's Bank of China stated that it will continue to carry out innovative applications of the digital yuan in the future, achieving interoperability between the digital yuan system and traditional electronic payment tools, allowing consumers to "scan with one code," and enabling merchants to support various payment tools without significantly increasing costs. (source link)

ChainCatcher News, People's Bank of China: Since December 2022, "currency in circulation (M0)" includes the circulating digital renminbi. At the end of December, the balance of circulating digital renminbi was 13.61 billion yuan. After revision, the growth rates of M1 and M2 at the end of each month in 2022 showed no significant changes. (Source link)

ChainCatcher News, Mu Changchun, the director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, spoke and answered hot questions about the "Currency Bridge" project at the 2022 Hong Kong FinTech Week. Mu Changchun stated: "We have built a system for the 'Currency Bridge', with the core being the Currency Bridge blockchain. The 'Currency Bridge' project adopts a Lego-like architecture, which is a modular architecture. Compared to the 'chimney architecture', the advantage of a modular architecture is that it allows interaction and collaboration between modules, significantly reducing compliance and regulatory costs, and enhancing the flexibility and adaptability of business governance, regulation, and policy systems among multiple countries (regions)."When asked why the "Currency Bridge" uses blockchain technology, Mu Changchun stated that although blockchain technology is not the most suitable technology for payment systems, considering the numerous participants in the Currency Bridge and the different cross-border payment regulatory systems and capital flow management systems in various jurisdictions, a decentralized technological approach is a more suitable choice to better address issues such as multi-party trust and privacy protection. (Source link)

ChainCatcher news, on October 31, the official website of the People's Bank of China published a speech by Governor Yi Gang at the "2022 Hong Kong FinTech Week" event. Yi Gang stated that in designing the digital renminbi, we adopted a "dual-layer operation" and "controllable anonymity" approach, which protects personal privacy while maintaining financial security.Currently, the People's Bank of China is collaborating with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and other monetary authorities on CBDC. We hope that such cooperation can better serve the needs of international and domestic markets and help consolidate Hong Kong's position as an international financial center. Looking ahead, we are willing to strengthen cooperation with various monetary authorities and international institutions on CBDC. (Source link)

ChainCatcher News, the People's Bank of China stated that as of now, the People's Bank has selected certain areas in 15 provinces (municipalities) to carry out digital RMB pilot programs and has comprehensively evaluated and identified 10 designated operating institutions. The top-level design of the digital RMB's two-tier operation framework has passed comprehensive testing, and its feasibility and reliability have been effectively verified. A large number of replicable and promotable application models covering both online and offline have been formed in various fields such as wholesale and retail, catering and cultural tourism, education and healthcare, and public services. As of August 31, 2022, the cumulative number of transactions in the pilot areas of the 15 provinces (municipalities) reached 360 million, with a total amount of 100.04 billion yuan, and the number of merchant stores supporting digital RMB exceeded 5.6 million. In addition, the digital RMB will continue to promote development in several areas, including strengthening the supply of basic products, exploring intelligent product applications, improving barrier-free and elderly-friendly designs, and maintaining a security bottom line. (source link)

Chain Catcher News: The 2022 Digital Economy Development Conference, themed "Building a New Development Pattern with the Digital Economy," was recently held at the National Convention Center. At the conference, the Chaoyang District People's Government signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China.In the next step, both parties will fully leverage the role of digital renminbi in empowering the government's digital transformation, promote the accelerated implementation of digital renminbi-related industries and policies in Chaoyang District, and actively explore research and application of related technologies such as legal digital currency and financial technology, enhancing the financial services capability for the real economy. (Source link)