Chinese online retailer JD.com taps digital yuan for staff payments

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has been using China’s Digital Currency Electronic Payment, or DCEP, system to pay the salaries of some employees.

The digital currency is backed and overseen by the country’s central government.

JD made its announcement in a blog post, published yesterday, while announcing its participation in the one-year DCEP trial show at the fourth Digital China Summit in Fuzhou.

This revealed that it has also tapped the DCEP solution in business-to-business payments to partner firms as well as cross-bank settlements.

It is unclear if the payments were one offs or recurring. JD did not respond to our request for clarification.

Fei Peng, Head of the DC/EP Programme at JD Technology, said in the blog post: “With years of development, JD Technology is the digital and intelligent service provider which has the best know how on industries, helping clients lower social cost and increase efficiency.”

“JD Technology will continue to combine strengths in the supply chain, omnichannel scenarios, advanced technology and client service experience to contribute more to the DC/EP ecosystem.”

Last year, JD began accepting the digital yuan as payment for some online products. Further info on that here.