The People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the nation’s reserve bank with around $3.2 trillion in assets, recently announced the second batch of Fintech initiatives that will take part in a pilot program involving new regulations.
The pilots will take place in China’s capital, Beijing, and will aim to support innovative projects in the Fintech sector.
China introduced this program in December of last year. The first group of six projects was announced in January of this year. The projects will participate in a regulatory sandbox program so that they are able to test and develop their products.
The PBoC’s second group of Fintechs includes 11 new projects focused on key areas such as banking, insurance, and digital payments.
These pilot projects are a part of a three-year program that’s focused on supporting Fintech development in mainland China.
Launched in August 2019, the program has also expanded to the other major Chinese cities including Chongqing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Suzhou, and the Xiongan New Area near Beijing.
China Merchants Port, the largest port operator in the country, recently teamed up with e-commerce giant, Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA), and its Fintech-focused subsidiary, Ant Financial.
Through the partnership, the companies will work towards developing a blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT)-enabled platform that will allow buyers, sellers, logistic firms, banking institutions, customs, and tax authorities to carry out contactless digital or online import / export transactions.
The PBoC recently confirmed that there’s no definite launch date set for the virtual yuan, despite rumors.
Chinese tech giant Tencent recently announced that it will be investing $70 billion into Blockchain, AI, Cybersecurity and various other initiatives.