An executive at a Chinese economics think tank has said that China’s central bank will be the first to launch a digital currency successfully. According to Chinese tech news outlet Pandaily, Huang Qifan, vice chairman of China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), confidently believes that China’s central bank will win the race for the first central bank digital currency (CBDC). A digital renminbi to replace SWIFT Qifan’s remarks came at the Inaugural Bund Financial Summit of 2019 in Shanghai. Per the report, Qifan was dissatisfied with current dependence on the United States’ SWIFT and CHIPS payments ... (full story)