PBOC licenses eight more banks for the e-CNY, tripling its operator roster to 30

The People's Bank of China authorized eight more lenders to run digital yuan services on August 17, 2026, lifting the number of licensed e-CNY operators to 30 ^[1]. That is a distribution decision rather than a product one, and it lands while Alipay and WeChat Pay still hold more than 90% of China's third-party mobile payments ^[7].

The new operators, according to Cailianshe, are Ping An Bank, Hengfeng Bank, Bohai Bank, Bank of Shanghai, Bank of Hangzhou, Huishang Bank, Bank of Changsha and Guangxi Beibu Gulf Bank ^[2]. They will connect to the central bank's digital yuan system and begin offering services once technical and operational setup is complete ^[4]. The roster began with 10 institutions: six state-owned commercial banks, two joint-stock lenders and two internet banks ^[6]. An April 2026 round added 12 more, including China CITIC Bank, China Everbright Bank and Huaxia Bank ^[5]. So the operator list has tripled, with 20 banks added across two batches ^[9]. The PBOC says more operators will widen access and meet public demand for safe, easy payments, and that it plans to keep expanding the list to encourage competition ^[3].

The usage figures explain why the central bank is working on the supply side. Cumulative e-CNY transactions reached 16.7 trillion yuan, about $2.3 trillion, by late 2025, across roughly 3.48 billion transactions and about 230 million personal wallets ^[10]. That averages roughly 4,800 yuan per transaction, or about $661 ^[12], and about 15 transactions and 72,600 yuan per wallet over the life of the pilot ^[13]. Those are not the metrics of a wallet people use for lunch. The publisher's own reading is consistent with that: much e-CNY activity happens in the background or is incentivized through government initiatives rather than chosen over the incumbent apps ^[14].

Adding eight mid-sized and regional banks does not change consumer preference. It does change the number of institutions that must build and maintain e-CNY plumbing, staff it, and carry it in their retail apps. Ping An Bank, Bank of Shanghai and Bank of Hangzhou bring their own customer bases, and the regional names on the list, Huishang, Changsha and Guangxi Beibu Gulf, extend the footprint into provincial markets where the state can pair the wallet with local disbursements ^[2].

The more consequential build is cross-border. CBETS, the Cross-border e-CNY Transfer Services platform run by a Shanghai firm under PBOC management, signed its first 26 direct participants in June, including Standard Chartered Bank (China) and overseas branches of Chinese banks in Thailand, Singapore, Laos and Qatar ^[8]. That is the leg where a central bank instrument has an argument the domestic apps cannot make, and it is a correspondent-banking problem, not a checkout-screen one. Steady development of the digital yuan was listed among core tasks in the PBOC's 2026-2030 reform blueprint published on August 10 ^[11].

Watch three things. Whether the CBETS participant count moves past 26 and whether any of those participants are not affiliated with Chinese banks ^[8]. Whether the eight new operators disclose any e-CNY wallet or transaction activity once live, rather than only announcing connection ^[4]. And whether transaction counts start growing faster than cumulative value, which would suggest retail use rather than large-value flows ^[10].