China’s digital yuan head urges unification of Alipay, WeChat Pay QR codes as PBOC pushes e-CNY adoption

China’s head of digital yuan is urging mobile payment providers such as WeChat Pay and Alipay to improve their interoperability and unify QR codes for e-CNY payments, as the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) aims to promote the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) across all retail use cases.

WeChat Pay and Alipay – operated by Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding respectively – and banking apps run by commercial banks, should unify the technical standards of their e-CNY payment QR codes in near term, and subsequently upgrade tools to support wide adoption of e-CNY, said Mu Changchun, head of the Digital Currency Research Institute, the central bank agency responsible for developing the digital yuan, at an industry forum on Sunday.

The digital yuan should eventually be a payment option across “all retail scenarios”, Mu said at the China International Fair for Trade in Services.

Mu defined retail e-CNY payments as day-to-day transactions involving individuals, companies, public institutions or government bodies, regardless of the transaction amount. Whereas wholesale payments refer to those that happen only between financial institutions, he said on Sunday.

Mu said that business models and regulatory models for the country’s payments market will not be changed by the roll-out of the digital yuan, while better payment options will lower costs for participants.

“A single, unified and standardised QR code that supports e-CNY payments as well as Alipay, WeChat Pay and existing electronic payment methods can incentivise more widespread use of e-CNY by making it more convenient for consumers to use, and for merchants to accept, e-CNY in the retail context,” said Andrew Fei, a partner at law firm King & Wood Mallesons in Hong Kong.