(Yicai) April 3 -- China has more than doubled the number of financial institutions allowed to offer digital yuan services to 22, with the largest single addition since the e-currency’s launch in 2019.

Twelve more commercial banks have been granted licenses for digital yuan operations, the People's Bank of China announced yesterday. Each has been linked up to the central bank's e-yuan system and will begin offering related services once operational and technical preparations are complete.

The newly added lenders are Bank of Beijing, Bank of Jiangsu, Bank of Nanjing, Bank of Ningbo, Bank of Suzhou, China Citic Bank, China Everbright Bank, China Guangfa Bank, China Minsheng Bank, China Zheshang Bank, Huaxia Bank, and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.

Ten financial institutions had e-yuan business licenses before the latest additions: Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Construction Bank, China Industrial Bank, China Merchants Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Postal Savings Bank of China, and the mobile payment platforms WeChat Pay and Alipay, respectively operated by Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding.

The digital yuan pilot program covered 17 provincial-level regions as of the end of last year, with 230 million personal wallets and 19.1 million corporate wallets opened, according to PBOC data. A total of 3.6 billion e-yuan transactions had been processed as of Dec. 31, involving CNY19.5 trillion (USD2.8 trillion).

The PBOC plans to further refine the digital currency’s management system, study how to improve its position within the monetary hierarchy, and support more commercial banks in becoming e-yuan service providers, Governor Pan Gongsheng said last October during the Annual Conference of Financial Street Forum in Beijing.

In January, the PBOC released an action plan to strengthen the e-yuan’s management and service system, marking the a shift from a digital-cash 1.0 era to a digital-deposit 2.0 era.

This upgrade will address the potential financial disintermediation risks that may arise during its development and reverse the previous situation in which banks could not profit from digital yuan operations, thereby encouraging them to take a more active role in building the e-yuan ecosystem, an expert previously told Yicai.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione