Written by: RWA Research Institute

In April 2026, the financial head of an auto parts export company in Chongqing completed a payment for suppliers in Southeast Asia. Entering the amount, confirming the remittance, waiting for it to arrive—this process was no different from the past. But this time, the waiting period changed from 3 working days to a few seconds.

According to information disclosed by the Chongqing branch of Industrial Bank on April 22, the bank recently successfully processed its first cross-border remittance business using digital renminbi. If viewed as a single transaction, it is merely an innovative case at the branch level; however, when placed in the dual context of exploring cross-border applications of digital renminbi and the national strategy of the new western land-sea corridor, the “seconds” encapsulated behind it signify a technological revolution and institutional breakthrough that are far more profound than they appear.

In fact, Industrial Bank is not alone in this. According to information previously released by the bank, in February of this year, the Changsha branch completed a cross-border payment using the currency bridge amounting to 270 million yuan, setting the record for the largest single amount in Hunan Province; earlier, the Changchun branch also successfully processed Jilin Province's first cross-border renminbi business using digital currency bridge, with an expected reduction in overall remittance costs of 50%. From Northeast to Southwest, and from tens of millions to hundreds of millions, the currency bridge is moving from a proof of concept to large-scale implementation.

Technology does not create value out of thin air; it only dismantles the walls that should have been torn down long ago.

1. The "Relay Race" of Cross-Border Payments: A Half-Century Tolerance for an Efficiency Black Hole

To understand what these seconds of remittance arrival mean, it is first necessary to recognize the true nature of traditional cross-border payments.

Currently, the global cross-border payment system is dominated by the "agent bank model." Simply put, funds are "passed along" between banks in different countries—the originating bank sends the remittance instruction to agent bank A, which forwards it to agent bank B, and so on, until it finally reaches the receiving bank. Each leg requires handover time, and each stop incurs transit fees. This model is called "agent bank" precisely because each participating bank acts as an agent for the remittance sender, and each time an agent is involved, it means an accumulation of costs.

Regarding the specific composition of cross-border payment costs, the Bank for International Settlements has pointed out in related research reports that the multi-layered intermediary structure under the agent bank model is a major factor driving up fees. Different data sources have varying estimates for average costs—World Bank's long-term tracking indicates that the average cost of global personal cross-border remittances remains around 6%, while the cost structure for corporate cross-border B2B payments is more complex, involving intermediaries' fees, foreign exchange spreads, compliance screening fees, and hidden costs of funds in transit. Regardless of the specific figures, one basic fact is clear: cross-border payments have long been in a "high-friction" state, with the efficiency of fund flow far lower than that of information flow.

What does this mean? For a manufacturing enterprise with an annual cross-border settlement scale of 1 billion yuan, the explicit and implicit costs of the payment process could reach tens of millions. This is not tax, nor raw material procurement, but purely the "friction loss" incurred by the flow of funds between different accounts.

Behind the costs lies the price of time. Traditional cross-border remittances typically require 1 to 3 working days to complete. For industries sensitive to capital turnover, such as automotive parts and electronic information, a 3-day delay means multiple layers of risk—from production lines facing pressure to halt due to unreceived parts payments, to exchange rate fluctuations eroding already thin profit margins during the wait, to uncertainties in order delivery. Time is never abstract; in the field of cross-border payments, it is precisely valued in terms of every minute of waiting and every change of hands' fee.

This inefficiency is not the fault of any one party but a systemic flaw. Payment systems in different countries exhibit significant differences in working hours, technical standards, data formats, privacy compliance requirements, and more, resulting in funds and information repeatedly experiencing cycles of "waiting—verification—forwarding—waiting" during cross-border transmission. Even more ironically, this payment framework, born in the 1970s and built on telecommunication messaging technology, remains the backbone of global trade today, despite mobile payment already permeating every corner of life. The reshaping of individual consumption experiences by financial technology starkly contrasts with the outdated appearance of cross-border B2B payments—a world capable of buying coffee via a mobile scan yet waiting three days to receive payments from overseas clients.

2. The "Subtraction" of Currency Bridge: From Multi-Layer Agents to Point-to-Point Direct Delivery

This disconnection is precisely what the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge seeks to bridge.

The mBridge project was jointly initiated by the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Bank of Thailand, and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates. According to information released by the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub, the core design concept of mBridge is to build a multilateral central bank digital currency sharing platform using distributed ledger technology, allowing central bank digital currencies from different jurisdictions to be exchanged and settled directly on the same platform. If the traditional agent bank model is a relay race, the currency bridge allows funds to go straight from start to finish. The initiator and receiver communicate directly on the platform, no longer needing to transfer through multiple agent banks one by one.

This "subtraction" brings three immediate changes. Firstly, speed. The time for this transaction at Industrial Bank’s Chongqing branch was compressed from 1 to 3 working days to a few seconds. The case of the Changchun branch similarly verifies this leap in efficiency—according to the Changchun branch of Industrial Bank, from initiating the transfer to the funds being credited, it was completed in real time. Secondly, cost. By eliminating the layers of fees charged by intermediary banks, overall remittance costs significantly decrease. Calculations by the Changchun branch post-implementation show a projected cost reduction of up to 50%. Thirdly, transparency. The distributed ledger technology enables full traceability of transaction processes, leaving an immutable record of the flow path of each fund in the ledger, which represents a fundamental upgrade for compliance management in cross-border payments.

However, the significance of the currency bridge extends far beyond "faster and cheaper." The deeper transformation lies in its redefinition of the governance structure of cross-border payments. In the traditional agent bank model, the distribution of network nodes and discourse power within cross-border payment systems is highly concentrated in a few international financial centers; whereas the multilateral framework of the currency bridge provides a more equitable space for rule-making among all participants. According to information previously disclosed by the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, the mBridge project has completed pilot validations in multiple scenarios, covering areas such as international trade settlement and cross-border investment and financing. In 2025 alone, the cross-border transaction volume achieved through mBridge in Chongqing has exceeded 2.2 billion yuan. From pilot verification to actual business implementation, the pace of advancing digital renminbi in the cross-border sector is clearly visible.

Of course, it must also be recognized that the currency bridge is currently still in the early stages of promotion. The range of covered currencies and jurisdictions is gradually expanding, and there is a long way to go before fully participating in the global payment system competition. At the same time, the competitive landscape of cross-border payments is also changing—SWIFT has been promoting its innovation plans in recent years, with global stablecoins and tokenized deposits also being explored in various jurisdictions. The currency bridge faces not only the challenge of technological maturity but also a long-term race in ecological building capacity. Innovation has never been an immediate denial of the old system; rather, it provides an option that no longer compromises.

3. The Resonance of Channels and Currency: Why Chongqing?

Understanding the value of the currency bridge cannot be detached from the real economic scenarios it serves. This is precisely where the Chongqing case is most persuasive.

As the core hub of the new western land-sea corridor, Chongqing is undergoing a profound transformation in its outward-oriented economy. According to data released by the Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Commerce, by 2025, imports and exports through the western land-sea corridor are expected to reach 52 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.5 times; trade with ASEAN is projected to reach 132.65 billion yuan, an increase of 12.6%, maintaining ASEAN's position as Chongqing's largest trading partner. Strong industries such as automotive manufacturing, electronic information, and cross-border e-commerce are accelerating their outward expansion, raising increasingly high demands for the efficiency of cross-border settlements.

In such a rapidly operating "corridor economy" hub city, every delay in cross-border payment is amplified. Goods can be transported from Chongqing to major ports in Southeast Asia within days, but funds may take the same or even longer time to arrive—this mismatch, where "logistics outpaces the flow of funds," has become an invisible bottleneck constraining trade efficiency. When the speed of the physical world surpasses that of the financial world, the latter becomes the weakest link in the entire system.

The value of this business implemented by the Chongqing branch of Industrial Bank lies in its precise targeting of this pain point. Through the currency bridge, funds and goods can achieve a movement rhythm that is much closer to synchronization, establishing a safe and efficient payment channel for local industries like automotive and electronic information to enter international markets. This is not an isolated technological application case but a deep coupling of financial infrastructure with national regional development strategy—the western land-sea corridor facilitates the connection of geographical space, while the currency bridge connects the value space. The overlay of both channels creates a new dimension of inland openness.

Policy-level collaboration is also accelerating. According to information disclosed at the Central Bank's Chongqing work meeting in 2026, the bank explicitly proposed the direction of “steadily developing digital renminbi,” incorporating the pilot and application of digital renminbi into annual key tasks. At the same time, the Central Bank of Yunnan Province also listed “accelerating the construction of digital renminbi in border trade scenarios” as a priority, requiring proactive service and integration into the construction of the western land-sea corridor. From central-local policy guidance to financial institutions' execution, from infrastructure construction to practical business expansion, a network of policies supporting the cross-border application of digital renminbi is continuously being woven.

4. From Efficiency to Trust: The Deep Logic of the Paradigm Shift in Cross-Border Payments

If the previous discussion was about what the currency bridge "has done," the next question to address is: what has it "changed"?

The essence of cross-border payments is not just the flow of funds, but the flow of trust. The core logic of the traditional agent bank model can be summarized as “trust intermediary”—the two transacting parties do not trust each other directly but collectively trust a series of intermediary banks located in different jurisdictions. Each agent bank serves as a testament to that trust, but it also incurs an efficiency cost. Trust is never free; it is either at the cost of time, money, or both.

The paradigm shift of the currency bridge lies in its transformation of the trust mechanism from “intermediary guarantee” to “technological consensus.” The immutability of distributed ledgers and the multi-party shared verification mechanism allow the transacting parties to settle and clear directly without many layers of intermediaries. This is not a relinquishment of trust, but an upgrade of the means of trust—similar to the evolution from paper contracts to electronic contracts, the form of trust has changed, but the strength of trust has not diminished; rather, it has become more reliable due to technological guarantees.

The profound impact of this shift on cross-border trade is just beginning to be revealed. When the payment time transitions from “days” to “seconds,” the rhythm of corporate fund turnover will undergo structural change. Fewer funds tied up mean higher capital utilization efficiency, and shorter settlement periods mean lower exposure to exchange rate risks. Every slight improvement in efficiency will amplify as significant cost savings at the macroeconomic level.

Meanwhile, the full traceability of the currency bridge also provides new possibilities for the development of regulatory technology. The increased transparency of cross-border fund flows helps regulatory agencies more accurately identify unusual transactions and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing risks, establishing a more balanced fulcrum between efficiency and security. This is significant for the high-level opening of finance—openness is never a relaxation of regulation; it is achieving regulatory goals in a smarter and more precise manner. Of course, the further promotion of the currency bridge still faces a series of deep-seated challenges, including but not limited to building regulatory coordination mechanisms across jurisdictions, integrating rules for data sovereignty and privacy protection, and coordinating the adaptation of foreign exchange management policies across different legal jurisdictions. Solving these issues requires not just technology itself but more complex international collaboration and institutional innovation.

Conclusion

From 1 to 3 working days to seconds, from multi-layer agents to point-to-point direct delivery, this cross-border remittance completed by the Chongqing branch of Industrial Bank is not merely about the transnational transfer of funds.

It has accomplished a demonstration—proving that the cross-border application of digital renminbi is no longer confined to theoretical deductions and closed pilots; it now possesses the actual capacity to serve the real economy in trade scenarios. It has executed a coupling—precisely aligning the innovative direction of financial technology with national open strategy, thereby providing a solid situational foundation for technology implementation. It also has completed a systematic inquiry into the old order—those inefficient links long accepted under the name of “industry practices” are not unshakable.

Reform in cross-border payments often does not announce its arrival in a dramatic manner. It more often hides in those few seconds of shortened arrival times, in the calmness of finance staff no longer needing to refresh account balances repeatedly, and in the payments no longer repeatedly sliced by intermediary fees.

When the flow of funds begins to chase the speed of logistics for the first time, the logic of efficiency in global trade is quietly being rewritten.

The corridor has already extended beneath our feet.

About the RWA Research Institute

The RWA Research Institute was jointly initiated by several seasoned financiers, Web3 practitioners, industry innovators, and technical experts, officially launching in Hong Kong on June 25, 2024 (full name: RWA Research Institute, abbreviated as RWARI).

As one of the earliest established professional research institutions on RWA internationally, the RWA Research Institute focuses on the field of Real World Assets (RWA), committed to promoting the integration of traditional financial assets with blockchain technology. Through in-depth research and practice, the institute provides innovative solutions for investors and enterprises, facilitating the digitization and tokenization of physical assets, building a bridge between traditional finance and digital assets.

The core mission of the RWA Research Institute is to integrate policy research, standard-setting, and ecological co-construction, assisting enterprises in achieving asset digitization transformation, and providing technical support and strategic cooperation for global compliant development. In the future, the institute will continue to deepen the integration of digital technology with the real economy, jointly holding global industrial summits with international institutions, exploring multi-field application scenarios, and injecting new momentum for high-quality globalization.

In May 2025, the RWA Research Institute, together with authoritative institutions such as China Search and the China Electronics Digital Scene Technology Research Institute, initiated the establishment of the "China RWA Industry Think Tank," focusing on the global compliance development in the asset digitization field. The think tank empowers the real economy through three core directions: first, leading the drafting of international collaboration standards like the “RWA Project Evaluation Criteria”; second, constructing a digital service chain of "asset on-chain—cross-border circulation—global trading," integrating blockchain and artificial intelligence technologies; third, building a cross-border compliance channel centered around Hong Kong and Shenzhen, promoting innovations in green finance and cross-border investment and financing. At the same time, the think tank relies on the "dual-chain integration structure" (coordinative mechanism of national-level alliance chains and cross-chain protocols) to strengthen technological autonomy and data security, deepening cross-border collaboration and compliance governance.

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