China is widening the banking infrastructure behind its digital currency again.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has added eight commercial banks to the country’s digital yuan network, bringing the number of institutions authorised to operate e-CNY services to 30.
The new operators are Ping An Bank, Hengfeng Bank, China Bohai Bank, Bank of Shanghai, Bank of Hangzhou, Huishang Bank, Bank of Changsha and Guangxi Beibu Gulf Bank.
It’s another fairly substantial expansion in a year when Beijing has already brought a fresh batch of banks into the system.
Eight Banks Join China’s Digital Yuan Network
The eight banks will connect to the PBOC’s digital yuan infrastructure, but customers shouldn’t necessarily expect services to appear immediately.
The central bank said the institutions will begin providing digital yuan services once their operational and technical preparations are complete.
That takes the operator network to 30 institutions.
More interesting than the headline number is the type of banks being added. The latest group includes joint-stock commercial banks alongside city and regional banks, extending e-CNY infrastructure beyond the largest national banking groups.
That matters if China wants the digital yuan to become ordinary payment infrastructure rather than something that sits mainly inside pilot programmes.
Regional Businesses and Cross-Border Payments Are Part of the Push
There’s a practical reason for bringing smaller and regional lenders into the network.
Dong Ximiao, chief researcher at Merchants Union Consumer Finance, said the newly added institutions could help address gaps involving regional small and medium-sized businesses and cross-border trade.
That gives the expansion a slightly different character from simply adding more consumer access points.
Regional banks already have relationships with businesses and customers that the biggest national lenders may not serve as closely. Plugging those banks directly into the digital yuan system could give the PBOC another route for pushing e-CNY into commercial payments, SME transactions and eventually more cross-border activity.
That broader shift toward digital and programmable payment infrastructure is also appearing elsewhere in finance, including the growing use of stablecoins and machine-to-machine payments for AI agents.
This Is China’s Second Major e-CNY Expansion in 2026
The latest additions didn’t come out of nowhere.
In April 2026, the PBOC added another 12 banks to the digital yuan network. That expansion was notable because city commercial banks became operators for the first time. Before that, Industrial Bank had become the tenth operator in 2022, followed by a lengthy pause in additions.
The pace has changed quickly.
China announced in October 2025 that it would support more commercial banks becoming authorised digital yuan operators. Between the 12 institutions added in April and another eight in August, the network has grown considerably in just a few months.
The PBOC says further expansion is planned as it tries to create a more open and competitive operating environment around e-CNY.
Digital Yuan Usage Is Already Measured in Trillions of Yuan
China began researching a central bank digital currency in 2014, while digital yuan pilots started in late 2019.
Since then, e-CNY has moved into considerably more everyday territory. Digital yuan payments have been tested or used for retail purchases, restaurants, tourism, education, healthcare, government services and cross-border settlements.
The transaction figures are no longer small either.
By November 2025, the digital yuan had processed more than 3.48 billion transactions worth CNY 16.7 trillion, according to figures reported by FinTech Futures.
Those numbers don’t automatically mean e-CNY has replaced China’s existing digital payment ecosystem. It hasn’t. But they do show how far the project has moved beyond the experimental stage.
Why More Banks Could Matter for e-CNY Adoption
CBDCs tend to attract attention because of the technology behind them. China’s current expansion is arguably more about distribution.
A digital currency isn’t particularly useful if access to it remains narrow.
Adding more banks gives e-CNY more potential entry points into existing financial relationships. A regional company doesn’t need to change banks simply to access digital yuan services if its existing lender eventually provides them. The same logic applies to consumers.
That could prove more important for adoption than another flashy CBDC pilot.
The PBOC is effectively building a broader banking layer around the digital yuan while leaving customer-facing services largely in the hands of commercial institutions.
And the expansion isn’t finished.
The central bank has said it intends to continue increasing the number of digital yuan operators.
Twenty new operators have already been added during 2026. If that pace continues, the bigger story may soon be less about whether China intends to scale e-CNY and more about how deeply it can weave the currency into the country’s existing banking and payments infrastructure.
Sources
- FinTech Futures — People’s Bank of China adds eight banks to digital yuan network
- Xinhua — China’s central bank adds 8 banks as digital yuan operators
- People’s Bank of China — Digital Yuan Information