On June 16, 2026, the Shanghai Digital RMB International Operation Center ushered in a milestone moment.
On the same day, the center officially signed direct participant agreements with 26 financial institutions. All of these institutions have access to the newly upgraded comprehensive cross-border settlement platform CBETS (Chubida), marking a key step in the large-scale implementation of the digital renminbi cross-border system.
The 26 institutions signed this time have a rich composition, achieving full coverage of domestic and overseas banks.
These include overseas branches of major state-owned banks, such as ICBC, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Bank of Communications in Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Qatar, Brazil and other regions; joint-stock overseas platforms, such as Industrial Hong Kong, CNCBI, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank/Singapore, and GF Hong Kong and Macau branches; and the foreign benchmark Standard Chartered China. Its participation as the only first batch of foreign-funded corporate banks symbolizes the recognition of digital renminbi by international financial institutions.
The business coverage of these institutions is wide, reaching directly to core trade and energy areas such as Hong Kong and Macao, Singapore, Laos, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Brazil, and covering core foreign trade markets such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
Compared with the traditional SWIFT agency banking system, the CBETS platform has significant underlying advantages.
Traditional cross-border settlement relies on multi-level agency banks, which has many pain points. However, with CBETS direct point-to-point connection, the settlement time has been greatly improved, compressed from 3-5 working days to hours or even seconds. For example, cross-border electricity sales in Laos have been cleared within 5 hours; in terms of cost, a single handling fee has been reduced from 25-25
US$50 is reduced to less than 1/10 of the original price; it operates 24/7, is not restricted by clearing periods in various countries, and the entire transaction on the chain is traceable, which facilitates penetrating compliance supervision; the structure can bypass the multi-layer agency bank chain, build an independent digital RMB cross-border clearing channel, and is compatible with the interconnection of central bank digital currency systems in various countries.
This move has had a three-level impact on the existing cross-border payment pattern.
First, it breaks the SWIFT + USD unipolar settlement monopoly.
Global traditional cross-border capital flows are highly dependent on SWIFT and U.S. dollar clearing links, and are vulnerable to geopolitical sanctions and the spillover effects of the Federal Reserve policy.
CBETS superimposes the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge mBridge to form a parallel and independent cross-border digital clearing system. Foreign trade companies and energy trade can directly use digital renminbi to complete bilateral local currency settlements, reducing the need for U.S. dollar transfers and weakening the U.S. dollar cross-border settlement share in the long run.
Secondly, it reshapes the competitive logic of banks’ cross-border business.
In the past, cross-border remittances and international trade settlements were monopolized by large foreign banks and established overseas clearing institutions. Now, domestic and overseas branches and foreign banks of Chinese companies have simultaneously accessed CBETS, which has lowered the threshold for small and medium-sized foreign trade merchants. Foreign banks are also forced to follow the layout. Domestic third-party cross-border payments can rely on 26 bank channels to access, reshaping the competitive landscape of the cross-border collection track.
Finally, a digital high-speed channel will be ushered in for the internationalization of the RMB. Offline local currency swaps and online digital clearing will be driven by two wheels. The offshore RMB market will be digitally upgraded to form a replicable regional model and promote the transformation of the global payment system into a multi-polar one.
However, digital RMB cross-border payments will not “completely change” in the short term, as there are three major practical constraints.
Currency usage habits are difficult to change in the short term. Global importers and exporters have long settled in US dollars, and the commodity and international credit pricing systems are still anchored to the US dollar. There are barriers to cross-border regulatory coordination. Digital currency supervision and anti-money laundering standards are not unified across countries. Some European and American countries are cautious about the cross-border circulation of central bank digital currencies. Scenario penetration is still in its infancy, currently focusing on B2B bulk trade and energy settlement. Individual cross-border study abroad, tourism, and e-commerce retail cross-border payment scenarios are still being implemented in batches, and it will take 3-5 years to popularize.
However, the collective access of 26 institutions to the network this time has also brought about two core opportunities in industry and market.
In terms of the industrial chain, banks, payment service providers, digital currency infrastructure, foreign trade, cross-border e-commerce, energy export companies, etc. will all benefit; from the perspective of medium- and long-term strategic value, the cross-border digital renminbi has moved from the pilot stage to large-scale commercial use. It is a key infrastructure for national financial independence and control, and for hedging external financial risks. There is clear room for long-term growth.
In general, the short-term digital renminbi will not immediately subvert the existing cross-border payment system dominated by SWIFT and the US dollar, and is an incremental supplementary change; in the medium and long term, as more countries and financial institutions access CBETS, the digital renminbi will continue to divert the share of cross-border settlements and promote the global payment pattern from a unipolar US dollar to a parallel multi-digit currency. The underlying rules of cross-border trade and financial services are slowly being reshaped.
At the same time, factors such as the progress of geopolitical cooperation, regulatory policies of various countries, and fluctuations in foreign trade demand will affect the speed of implementation. If there is collective speculation in the relevant sectors in the short term, we need to be alert to the risk of a fishtail market correction.
