A criminal gang in Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province, recently used digital RMB accounts to illegally cash out more than 200,000 yuan in just four days. Several people used shopping and chatting to lure merchants with digital RMB accounts. After the merchants agreed to cash out, they first converted a certain amount of their own money into virtual currency as a deposit to give to the upstream, and then sent the digital RMB collection code to the upstream. When the upstream's fraudulent funds entered the merchant's digital RMB account, the merchant deducted a 1% to 1.5% service fee and then obtained the corresponding amount of cash. The Yuezhou District Procuratorate prosecuted and the court sentenced Yuan, Zhang, and Kou to imprisonment for one year and four months to seven months respectively for concealing and hiding the proceeds of the crime, and imposed fines. The prosecutor reminded the public to strengthen their understanding of digital RMB, pay attention to protecting personal information, and report suspicious situations in a timely manner to protect their property safety.

Li Dazhi, Vice President of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, stated that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has been collaborating with the People's Bank of China Digital Currency Research Institute to promote cross-border pilot testing of digital renminbi in Hong Kong. After completing exercises with multiple operating agencies and local banks in Hong Kong earlier this year, it is expected that digital renminbi will further expand its pilot scope in Hong Kong. Li Dazhi said that more Hong Kong citizens will be able to easily open and use digital renminbi wallets, and recharge their digital renminbi wallets through "Zhuansukuai", in order to facilitate the payment needs of Hong Kong residents living or consuming in the mainland; Mainland tourists can also use digital renminbi wallets for consumption in Hong Kong, providing payment support for the "one-hour living circle" in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. <br>

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently revealed a new trick for scamming people with fake "digital RMB" apps: these fake apps will steal the icon, background image, and promotional language of legitimate apps to create a sense of being an "official app". They usually have the following characteristics: first, they use the name of "government benefits" to induce victims to spread the fake app by promising "bonuses for inviting others"; second, they induce the public to register with their real name by offering so-called "welfare funds" and obtain sensitive personal information; third, they set up special customer service group pages to lead victims to some uncommon social tools and then defraud them of their money.

Shanghai Municipal People's Government issued the "Implementation Plan for Shanghai to Implement the Overall Plan for High-level Systematic Opening of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, which Fully Connects with International High-standard Economic and Trade Rules", which mentioned the orderly promotion of the digital RMB pilot, expanding the application scenarios of digital RMB, creating a more convenient, inclusive, and user-friendly digital RMB acceptance environment, further deepening the digital RMB pilot applications in trade settlement, chain supermarkets, tourism and catering, e-commerce platform payments and other fields, and gradually building a digital RMB ecosystem.

The People's Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority decided to launch six policy measures, including deepening the cross-border pilot of digital RMB, to bring more convenience to residents and enterprises in Hong Kong and the mainland. According to reporters, based on previous testing and verification, the Digital Currency Research Institute and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority will further deepen their cooperation in the cross-border pilot of digital RMB. More institutions will be supported to participate in the pilot, providing users with more convenient application conditions. Based on the institutions that participated in the previous verification, more participating operating institutions and local banks in Hong Kong will be introduced in the near future. Currently, relevant institutions have basically completed their preparations and will provide services to the public in batches. The scope of service subjects and scenarios will be expanded. It will further facilitate Hong Kong residents to open and use digital RMB wallets; enrich the functions of digital RMB wallets that Hong Kong residents can use; explore personal small cross-border remittance services based on digital RMB to improve remittance service efficiency.

China Bank has released the first "One Family Across the Taiwan Straits" digital RMB hardware wallet in the country. The relevant person in charge stated that the hardware wallet is a hardware manifestation of digital RMB, which can be simply understood as a stored value card containing the national legal currency that is universally used throughout the country. This is aimed at actively exploring the use of digital RMB for Taiwan payment.

WeChat Pay has partnered with hundreds of acquiring institutions to further expand the range of merchants who can accept digital RMB within WeChat. Currently, millions of merchants in various sectors such as life services, household payments, catering and entertainment, and transportation have been covered, including scenic spots and museums, local life payment platforms, T3 Travel, Hellobike, SF Express, and Southern Power Grid. This support for various life services and household payments will further enrich the daily use scenarios of digital RMB. Users can experience digital RMB transactions conveniently through WeChat's mini-program scenarios.

The Shaoxing police have cracked the first case of using digital RMB accounts for money laundering in Zhejiang, and 7 people involved in the crime of aiding and abetting have been arrested. The bureau stated that on September 16th of last year, a bank employee reported to the police after noticing "very unusual" transaction activity on a merchant's electronic RMB wallet. The police immediately set up a special working group to investigate. It was ultimately determined that the wallet was used to raise funds for an "overseas fraudster group." The police added that about 20 mobile phones and "computers and other devices" were seized, and funds worth more than $3,370 were frozen in digital RMB wallets and bank accounts. The organization used digital RMB wallets to process about $70,000 worth of laundered funds.

Di Gang, deputy director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, stated that the pilot scope of the digital yuan has been expanded to 26 pilot areas in 17 provinces and cities. The application scenarios of the digital yuan have extended from personal consumption scenarios to public enterprise services such as salary payments, inclusive loans, green finance, as well as government services such as finance, taxation, public utilities, e-government, and poverty alleviation, providing strong support for the implementation of national strategies and financial services to the real economy.

The People's Bank of China held its annual work conference on January 4-5, 2024 in Beijing. The conference pointed out that the level of financial services and management continues to improve, and institutional reforms are steadily advancing. The "Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Non-Bank Payment Institutions" have been introduced. National financial basic database data sharing has been strengthened. Special rectification has been carried out to refuse cash of RMB, and the pilot project of digital RMB has been steadily launched. The service quality of the financial credit information basic database continues to improve.