From April 13 to 14, 2026, the World Internet Conference Asia-Pacific Summit was held grandly in Hong Kong, China.
With the theme of “Digital Intelligence Empowerment, Innovation and Development – Working Together to Build a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace”, this summit attracted nearly a thousand political figures, representatives of international organizations, financial institutions and technology company executives from more than 50 countries and regions around the world to gather together to focus on important areas such as digital economy, cross-border payments, financial technology and regional coordinated development.
The summit specially set up a sub-forum on the integration of digital finance and the real economy, taking RMB cross-border payment, CIPS system, digital RMB cross-border application, and mBridge multilateral central bank digital currency bridge as core topics. It aims to directly face the pain points of the traditional cross-border payment system, build consensus in the Asia-Pacific region, and jointly draw a new generation of cross-border payment ecological blueprint that is independent and controllable, diversified, efficient, safe and inclusive.
Currently, the global cross-border payment landscape is undergoing profound changes.
The traditional system represented by SWIFT has structural risks such as centralized rules, easy intervention, lengthy chains, and high costs. The instrumentalization of financial sanctions has exacerbated the fragility of the global payment system.
As the most active region in the global digital economy and trade, the Asia-Pacific region has an urgent need for safe, efficient, low-cost, independent and controllable cross-border payment channels.
Against this background, the internationalization of the RMB is steadily advancing. As the core clearing infrastructure, CIPS, working in conjunction with the digital RMB and mBridge, has become a key support for the Asia-Pacific region to break payment dependence, promote local currency settlement, and achieve financial independence. It has established a safe and efficient capital flow base for the high-quality development of regional economy and trade.
The “Asia-Pacific Digital Finance Inclusive Development Report” released at the summit shows that RMB has become the second largest settlement currency for cross-border trade in the Asia-Pacific, accounting for 28.3%, and regional recognition and usage scale have reached new highs.
CIPS aims to achieve global network coverage. It currently covers more than 95% of countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific, connecting more than 3,000 domestic and foreign financial institutions, forming a stable, independent and efficient main channel for RMB cross-border clearing.
At the same time, the scale and efficiency of CIPS have been improved, the system processing capabilities have been continuously enhanced, and the business covers all scenarios such as trade settlement, direct investment, securities investment, cross-border financing, etc., becoming the core carrier for the RMB to move from “using currency” to “system currency”.
The scale of CIPS participants continues to expand, the number of direct and indirect participants continues to grow, and the average daily transaction amount of the system is also on the rise.
The CIPS sandbox plan further combines the clearing base with cross-border transactions and rule coordination capabilities, so that RMB cross-border payments are no longer limited to the inter-bank clearing level, but extend to broader cross-border economic and trade cooperation and financial cooperation between countries.
CIPS organizes in-depth coordination of multilateral mechanisms, is deeply embedded in the cooperation framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS countries, and forms an iron triangle linkage of “demand-clearing-system” with the BRICS payment system, providing implementable and sustainable infrastructure guarantees for non-US dollar settlements, and promoting the large-scale development of local currency settlements in the Asia-Pacific.
As cross-border trade, supply chain collaboration, cross-border e-commerce, livelihood payments and regional retail payment scenarios continue to enrich, the advantages of digital renminbi in improving payment efficiency, reducing settlement costs, enhancing traceability and compliance controllability are increasingly apparent.
For the Asia-Pacific region, digital RMB is not only a technological innovation, but also an important variable in promoting the upgrading of cross-border payment models and improving inclusive financial capabilities.
The large-scale implementation of cross-border applications of digital renminbi requires the collaborative support of institutional platforms, clearing capabilities and multi-subject participation mechanisms.
CIPS is an important extension of the RMB cross-border payment system to a wider range of market entities.
As RMB cross-border payments enter the stage of systematic advancement, the platform has lowered the threshold for participation through institutionalized and standardized participation mechanisms, allowing more market entities to join in an orderly manner under the framework of national rules, and jointly promote the increase in the scale and activity of cross-border settlements.
The CIPS sandbox plan focuses on expanding the scope of access, covering banks, non-bank institutions and cross-border platforms, promoting the linkage of cross-border payments and retail payment systems, increasing the participation of individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises, and establishing unified access, risk control and liquidation rules to ensure system stability under scale expansion.
The relationship between the digital RMB and the CIPS clearing base, platform-based participation mechanism, and institutionalized collaborative capabilities is forming a mutually reinforcing and joint amplification relationship.
Under this synergy, the digital renminbi is expected to further unleash efficiency advantages, cost advantages and inclusive advantages in the Asia-Pacific region, becoming an important starting point for promoting the digital upgrade of cross-border payments.
The Multilateral Central Bank Digital Currency Bridge (mBridge) became the focus of this summit in the field of digital finance. It successfully completed the RMB-Hong Kong dollar-Singapore dollar cross-border real transaction test, achieving second-level clearing and reducing handling fees by approximately 90%, with significant efficiency and cost advantages.
This summit further clarified that a collaborative ecosystem with CIPS as the core base, digital RMB as the innovation pioneer, mBridge as the multilateral bridge, and the SCO and BRICS mechanisms as institutional support is the optimal path for upgrading the Asia-Pacific cross-border payment system.
Special support from the central government and the implementation of the SCO Foundation and the BRICS Foundation have provided stable financial guarantees for cross-border payment infrastructure construction, multilateral cooperation and scenario expansion.
CIPS introduces blockchain technology to form an “account” + “value” dual-track synergy with the digital renminbi, improving system security, processing efficiency and global coverage.
Adhering to co-construction, sharing, and win-win, we do not seek to replace the existing system, but provide diverse, safe, and independent new options to promote the evolution of the global payment system toward multipolarity, fairness, and stability.
The successful holding of the Asia-Pacific Summit of the 2026 World Internet Conference marks that the Asia-Pacific cross-border payment system has entered a new stage of diversified collaboration, digital drive, independent security.
China’s solution with CIPS, digital RMB, and mBridge as its core has injected strong momentum into regional economic and trade cooperation, financial inclusion, and high-quality development.
Looking to the future, with the continuous deepening of multilateral mechanisms, continuous breakthroughs in technological innovation, and the steady expansion of global networks, the RMB cross-border payment system will continue to improve. CIPS will work with Asia-Pacific countries to build a more just, stable, and inclusive new international financial order, and contribute Asia-Pacific wisdom and Chinese power to the development of global digital finance.
