China just plugged 26 banks into its cross-border digital yuan

China Takes the Digital Yuan Global

China's central bank has made its most concrete move yet toward internationalising the digital yuan. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) signed agreements on June 16 with 26 financial institutions, granting them direct participant status on the Cross-border e-CNY Transfer Services platform, known as CBETS. Among the first cohort is Standard Chartered (@StanChart), one of the only foreign-owned banks in the group.

CBETS is a blockchain-based, 24/7 settlement platform built and operated by e-CNY Center International Co. under the guidance of the PBOC's Digital Currency Institute. The platform gives participating institutions direct connectivity with the payment systems of monetary authorities and financial institutions at home and abroad, cutting settlement from several working days to just a few hours, compared with the three-to-five intermediary banks typically involved in a conventional cross-border transaction.

Standard Chartered China confirmed it was among the first foreign banks to sign the agreement. Jean Lu, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank (China), said fintech is "fundamentally reshaping the underlying logic of cross-border payments," adding that a compliant, efficient payment experience would support wider international use of the yuan.

Scope, Scale, and Strategic Intent

While 26 banks is a large headline figure, in practice there are ten parent banks represented, including five major state-owned lenders: ICBC, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Bank of Communications. Their branches and subsidiaries span the initial coverage regions: Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Laos, Thailand, the UAE, Qatar, and Brazil, with further expansion planned.

CBETS will operate alongside China's existing Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), which launched in 2015 as an alternative to Swift for traditional interbank transfers. CBETS focuses specifically on digital yuan settlement, sitting on top of China's CBDC infrastructure rather than replacing legacy rails.

The launch also carries a regulatory signal. On the same day CBETS went live, a senior PBOC official called for closer monitoring of stablecoins in cross-border payments, underscoring Beijing's preference for a state-controlled digital currency model over privately issued tokens. China banned unauthorised yuan-pegged stablecoins in February 2026, and the CBETS rollout reinforces that the e-CNY is Beijing's chosen instrument for the digital payments era.

Industry sources cited by Reuters described the push as placing Beijing on a different, and potentially competing, path from the United States in shaping the future of money.

Sources:
South China Morning Post: China accelerates digital yuan push as 26 banks join new cross-border platform
China Daily Asia: 26 institutions sign on as direct participants for cross-border e-CNY services
FinanceFeeds: Standard Chartered joins China's cross-border e-CNY payment network