Central Bank Deputy Governor Lu Lei: Looking forward to the digital Macao Pataca system connecting with "Digital Currency Banknote" CBETS

On June 4, Lu Lei, Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China, stated at the "High-Level Seminar on the Development of Central Bank Digital Currencies and Cross-border Innovative Applications in China and Portuguese-speaking Countries" that China has initially established a digital RMB ecosystem and completed the upgrade of the new generation measurement framework in January this year, upgrading digital cash to digital deposit currency (Version 2.0) with value storage functions. Digital RMB possesses core capabilities such as general hybrid currency, programmable smart payments, and efficient supervision. Lu Lei revealed that the multi-CBDC bridge (mBridge), jointly promoted by the People's Bank of China, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Monetary Authority of Macao, the Central Bank of the UAE, and the Bank of Thailand, is continuously expanding its members and business scenarios. At the same time, the People's Bank of China has created the "Cross-border Interbank Payment System" (CBETS) cross-border settlement service platform, which supports overseas institutions with "one-stop access" and 24/7 direct settlement on and off-chain. Macao is actively promoting the sandbox testing of the digital Macao Pataca, and in the future, it is expected to achieve interconnection between the digital Macao Pataca system and CBETS, providing China and Portuguese-speaking countries with more transparent, secure, efficient, and low-cost cross-border payment and settlement channels.