Chinese city of Suzhou to give away $3 million in digital yuan via lottery
Suzhou will give away 100,000 red packets of 200 yuan worth of DC/EP to city residents via a lottery, as part of the Peoples Bank of China central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot. Local citizens can register for the lottery on December 5 and 6 and the results will be announced the day before the annual Double 12 online shopping festival. Lottery winners can spend the free digital yuan from December 11 to 27 at shops that support the DC/EP payment as well as at selected online shops on e-commerce giant JD.com. In addition, the government said selected winners from the lottery will be invited to test out the offline payment feature that’s built into a DC/EP wallet.
Stripe to Offer Banking Services in Deal With Goldman Sachs, Citigroup
Stripe, which processes payments for millions of online businesses and e-commerce platforms, is teaming up with banks including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to offer checking accounts and other business-banking services. It will soon give its customers the option of offering insured, interest-bearing bank accounts, debit cards and other cash-management services. These products aren’t meant for consumers. Rather, they are designed for the merchants and vendors that do business with Stripe’s customers.
Singapore doles out four digital bank licences
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has awarded full virtual banking licences to a Grab-Singtel consortium and tech giant Sea, and digital wholesale bank licences to Ant Group and a coalition comprising Greenland Financial Holdings Group, Linklogis Hong Kong, and Beijing Co-operative Equity Investment Fund Management. The central bank announced the digital bank framework in June 2019 with the aim of enabling non-bank players with innovative business models to offer digital banking services.
