The Multilateral Central Bank Digital Currency Bridge, jointly launched by the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Bank of Thailand, and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, is the world’s first cross-border payment solution with central bank digital currency as the core. It has multiple advantages of high efficiency, low cost, high scalability, and compliance. It not only serves the promotion of the RMB internationalization strategy, but also provides a replicable practical model for global digital currency cross-border cooperation.
The Agricultural Bank of China Guangdong Branch took the lead in responding to the demand for digital upgrading of cross-border payments, actively cooperated with cross-border enterprises to explore the implementation of digital currency bridges, and created a “cross-border RMB settlement + digital currency bridge” comprehensive service plan, covering multiple key areas such as real economy manufacturing, cross-border supply chains, and new energy, providing solid financial support for enterprises to go overseas and implement major projects.
In Nansha District, Guangzhou City, a large multinational group is accelerating its global industrial layout. Its cross-border subsidiaries are responsible for global investment, mergers and acquisitions, and resource integration functions. After the group recently completed the acquisition of overseas manufacturing companies, there has been frequent demand for remittances of large amounts of direct investment funds under capital accounts. The pain points of long transfer cycles, many intermediate links, and high handling fees under the traditional cross-border remittance model have always restricted the company’s capital turnover efficiency.
After understanding the enterprise’s demands, the Guangdong Guangzhou Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China customized an exclusive digital currency bridge service plan for it. Cross-border funds are point-to-point from domestic to overseas counterparty receiving banks, basically achieving real-time arrival. This not only greatly improves payment efficiency and transparency, but also eliminates the intermediary bank transaction link, significantly reduces the enterprise’s handling fee expenses, optimizes the financial cost structure, and completely opens up the blockage of the enterprise’s cross-border capital circulation.
Also benefiting from the digital currency bridge service is a new energy and new materials company in Panyu District, Guangzhou. As a leading domestic new energy material R&D and production company, its products are widely supplied to new energy vehicles, energy storage and other tracks. In the process of expanding the global market, the company is conducting joint research and development with overseas institutions. The original remittance method has complex procedures and slow arrival, which seriously affects the efficiency of fund settlement and hinders the advancement of overseas business.
The Agricultural Bank of China Guangzhou Branch in Guangdong took the initiative to connect with customers and open a digital currency bridge remittance channel for enterprises. After the enterprise submits a remittance application at the branch, the overseas payee can receive the money in a short time, and the capital turnover efficiency is increased several times.
The person in charge of the company said that the new settlement channel has completely solved the worries of cross-border capital turnover and provided great assistance to the company’s overseas business expansion.
It is understood that since the digital currency bridge project entered the minimum viable product stage in June 2024, the Guangdong Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China has relied on cross-border financial facilitation policies to continue to deepen the application cooperation of multilateral central bank digital currency bridge scenarios, giving full play to the core advantages of this model of point-to-point direct connection, full traceability, efficient liquidation, and low cost, and gradually extended the business scenarios from traditional goods trade and service trade to the capital project field, covering the cross-border capital needs of more enterprises.
So far, the bank has handled over 25 billion yuan in overseas remittance business for more than 300 cross-border trade companies through the digital currency bridge, helping companies build digital financial hubs and effectively ensuring the safety and efficiency of cross-border trade settlement.
In the next step, Agricultural Bank of China Guangdong Branch will continue to explore diverse application scenarios of digital RMB in the field of cross-border settlement under the guidance of regulatory authorities, continue to strengthen online service capabilities, accelerate the construction of a more complete ecosystem of RMB cross-border usage scenarios, and provide high-quality and efficient cross-border financial service support for more foreign trade companies going overseas.
