Payments
China banks unveil ATMs for travelers
May 7, 2021
There's good news for travelers to China: two government-backed banks unveiled an ATM prototype for foreigners interested in getting their hands on the country's digital yuan. The yuan is officially known as e-CNY, but unofficially dubbed as DCEP — Digital Currency Electronic Payment— the original name for China's digital currency project, according to a report on Forkast.
The Bank of China's prototype allows customers to exchange foreign currencies into digital yuan. The machine automatically produces a DCEP hardware wallet in the form of a bank card. The DCEP ATM supports 17 foreign currencies and the digital yuan is accepted at shopping malls, supermarkets, vending machines and for public transportation. Digital yuan ATMs will not be readily available for public's until the 2022 Winter Olympic games in Beijing.
ICBC's intelligent terminal
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is testing a similar machine it calls an intelligent terminal. Using this terminal, people can deposit cash into their digital bank account and issue digital yuan chip wallets, according to television station 21Jingii.
ICBC tested its intelligent terminal in February, depositing digital yuan and withdrawing it in eight ATMs in Beijing's high-traffic shopping district known as Wangfujing.
Using QR codes displayed on the ATM monitor, people who have already downloaded the DCEP app on their smartphones were able to transfer the yuan to their ICBC bank account and then transfer that yuan into digital currency.
