(Yicai) May 20 -- Hong Kong has expanded its pilot program for the digital Chinese yuan to make it easier for residents of the special administrative region to make payments in the mainland.

Hong Kong residents can now open individual e-yuan wallets using their mobile phone numbers and instantly top up their funds through the Faster Payment System at 17 local banks, the SAR’s monetary authority said on May 17.

Eleven of the banks, including Bank of China (Hong Kong), support real-time exchange services between the Hong Kong dollar and yuan, so Hong Kong residents can use both currencies to recharge their e-yuan wallets.

Moreover, Hong Kong has expanded the scope of the pilot program to all mainland cities taking part in testing the digital currency from those in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. New digital wallets will also support cross-border payments, but not individual-to-individual transfers.

The enlarged program and the full use of services under the Faster Payment System enables local users to top up their digital wallets anytime and anywhere, without having to open accounts at mainland banks, said Eddie Yue, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. This will help to boost consumption by Hong Kong residents when in the mainland, he added.

The HKMA will continue its close partnership with the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, to gradually expand the application scenarios of the e-yuan, enrich the functionality of digital wallets for Hong Kong residents, and prompt more retailers to accept e-yuan payments, thereby smoothing cross-border payments for both Hong Kong and mainland residents, Yue noted. 

The e-yuan is the digital form of China’s legal tender. As of January, the mainland’s pilot program had expanded to 26 trial zones in 17 provinces and municipalities.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione