The People's Bank of China disclosed on 29 December 2025, in an article by Deputy Governor Lu Lei in the central bank-affiliated Financial News, an action plan that will allow holders of the digital yuan, or e-CNY, to earn interest on their wallet balances, paid by the commercial banks that operate the wallets, with the change scheduled to take effect from 1 January 2026. The document is titled the Action Plan on Further Strengthening the Digital RMB Management Service System and Related Financial Infrastructure.
Under the plan the e-CNY shifts from 'digital cash' to 'digital deposit money': wallet balances become liabilities of the commercial banks that operate them, which will pay the interest.
INTEREST AT DEMAND DEPOSIT RATES FROM JANUARY 2026
Under the action plan, banking institutions will calculate and pay interest on balances in customers' real-name e-CNY wallets in line with the industry's self-regulatory deposit-rate pricing mechanism; in practice banks have set the rate at their demand-deposit level.
The PBoC described the measures as intended to further strengthen management of the digital renminbi and to support the currency's broader role within the domestic payments and financial system.
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