On April 21, the People's Bank of China, the General Administration of Financial Supervision, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government jointly issued the Action Plan of Shanghai International Financial Center to Further Improve the Facilitation of Cross border Financial Services (hereinafter referred to as the Action Plan), which supports the pilot banks of digital RMB operation in Shanghai to actively participate in the multilateral central bank's digital currency bridge project. Du Yang, a researcher at the Bank of China Research Institute, told reporters: "This is an important signal for China to promote the internationalization of digital RMB and deepen cooperation in cross-border payment systems. The introduction of the 'Action Plan' means that Shanghai will play a pioneering role in the development of multilateral central bank digital currency bridges, not only enhancing the voice of China's financial infrastructure in the global financial system, but also laying the foundation for the expansion of practical application scenarios of digital RMB in cross-border payments. The 'Action Plan' proposes 18 key measures from five aspects, including improving cross-border settlement efficiency, optimizing exchange rate hedging services, strengthening financing services, enhancing insurance protection, and improving comprehensive financial services, to enhance cross-border settlement efficiency. The Action Plan proposes to support pilot banks operating digital RMB in Shanghai to actively participate in the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge project, explore innovative characteristic scenarios, and support foreign exchange trading centers to provide foreign exchange liquidity management and exchange services for the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge. This will help solve the technical bottleneck of multi currency conversion and improve cross-border settlement efficiency Xue Hongyan, a special researcher at Su Shang Bank, told reporters. The so-called multilateral central bank digital currency bridge (mBridge) is jointly constructed by the Bank for International Settlements (Hong Kong) Innovation Center, the Bank of Thailand (Bank of Thailand), the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, the People's Bank of China Digital Currency Institute and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and is committed to creating a cross-border payment solution with high efficiency, low cost, high scalability and regulatory requirements centered on the central bank's digital currency. Du Yang stated that in the "Action Plan", banks will play a dual role as "node operators" and "innovative application-oriented". They will not only undertake the system testing task of connecting the RMB digital wallet on the mBridge platform with other countries' CBDCs (central bank digital currencies), but also participate in the construction of digital currency settlement paths in cross-border business scenarios such as trade, investment and financing, and supply chain finance. In the future, banks need to collaborate with enterprise users, overseas cooperative banks, and regulatory authorities to jointly promote the cross-border programmable payment and policy coordination of China's digital RMB, forming replicable and promotable experience samples. According to the reporter's review, there have been landing cases in multiple places. During the year, pilot banks for digital RMB operation in multiple places released information on their participation in the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge project. For example, in February 2025, the Shaanxi Branch of the People's Bank of China guided the Shaanxi Branch of the Bank of Communications to deeply connect with customer needs, and successfully launched the first multilateral central bank digital currency bridge cross-border payment business in Shaanxi Province; On April 10, under the guidance of Shenzhen Branch of the People's Bank of China, Shenzhen Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China and Qianhai United Trading Center successfully launched the first multilateral central bank digital currency bridge payment business for bulk commodity transactions in Qianhai. This can provide experience for Shanghai's digital RMB operation pilot banks to actively participate in multilateral central bank digital currency bridge projects Liu Bin, Director of the Financial Research Department at the China (Shanghai) Free Trade Zone Research Institute, told reporters. Multiple interviewees believe that the release of the Action Plan has significant practical significance. Firstly, it helps institutions to increase innovation in digital RMB scenarios; secondly, it promotes the application of digital RMB in cross-border fields; thirdly, in the current cross-border payment system, it often requires passing through one or more proxy banks, with long payment links and high fees. In the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge, commercial banks can improve cross-border settlement efficiency without compromising compliance and effectively reduce cross-border payment costs, "said Liu Bin. Xue Hongyan stated that the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge, relying on blockchain technology and innovative mechanisms, can bring about a geometric improvement in cross-border payment efficiency and a reduction in cost structure. At the same time, it is also conducive to the reconstruction of the international monetary system pattern, and has important strategic value in enhancing the global radiation power of China's financial resource allocation and financial security. Du Yang believes that the Action Plan sends a signal of steadily expanding the two-way opening of finance, which is conducive to attracting foreign financial institutions to deeply cultivate the Chinese market and promoting more standardized, efficient, and transparent cross-border capital flows. (New Society)