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Judy Xue

China has completed its first outbound digital yuan payment to Malaysia, settling a 43,000 yuan (US$6,360) shipment of fresh durian, as Beijing accelerates efforts to build a cross-border clearing network in Southeast Asia outside the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift) system.
The transaction, executed by China Construction Bank’s (CCB) Xiamen branch in coordination with its Labuan branch in Malaysia, enabled a local importer to pay directly in e-CNY, China’s central bank digital currency.
The deal completed a bilateral digital-currency loop following an inbound trial in January.
Traditional cross-border settlement has long been a key industry pain point for perishable tropical imports like durian, which are highly sensitive to processing speed and transaction costs.
Moving money through traditional correspondent bank networks under Swift cost foreign trade firms US$25 to US$35 per transaction, with clearing fees upwards of 6 per cent and settlement times stretching one to three business days, according to Xinhua Finance.
By contrast, the e-CNY bilateral mechanism slashed clearing times to 30 minutes via direct bank-to-bank ledger transfers, bypassing intermediary clearing banks and allowing overseas recipients to convert e-CNY directly into Malaysian ringgit without extra fees.
The payment mechanism coincides with a boom in bilateral tropical fruit trade. Malaysian fresh durian exports to China jumped to US$37 million in value in 2025, up from around US$5 million, following a trade protocol signed in June 2024.


Frozen durian shipments reached nearly US$202 million, with Kuala Lumpur aiming to expand the annual value of its total durian exports to China to more than 900 million ringgit (US$220 million) by 2030.
China has been Malaysia’s largest trading partner for 17 consecutive years, with bilateral trade reaching a record US$212 billion in 2024.
As a hub for Southeast Asian agricultural imports and exports, Xiamen, in China’s southeastern Fujian province, saw CCB process several billion yuan in cross-border digital-currency transactions in the first half of 2026.
To lower technical integration barriers for foreign institutions, China launched the commercial operation of its upgraded Cross-Border e-CNY Express Service (CBETS) platform in Shanghai on June 16. Connected via a Hong Kong access point, the infrastructure allows overseas banks to process round-the-clock digital payments without overhauling legacy IT systems.
CBETS signed up 26 licensed financial institutions at its launch, covering trade, investment, and regulated digital assets across Hong Kong, Macau, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
Mu Changchun, director general of the People’s Bank of China’s Digital Currency Research Institute, said at the World Economic Forum’s “Summer Davos” event in June that standardised CBETS services enhanced the international applicability of the yuan and strengthened risk controls for cross-border capital flows.
Industry experts said that while operational hurdles like cross-jurisdictional compliance remained, the two-way corridor offered a scalable model to reduce reliance on single international clearing networks.


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Deal advances Beijing’s push to expand the digital yuan through alternative cross-border clearing channels beyond Swift system


Deal advances Beijing’s push to expand the digital yuan through alternative cross-border clearing channels beyond Swift system.


China cuts durian settlement to 30 minutes with first outbound e-CNY payment to Malaysia

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Deal advances Beijing’s push to expand the digital yuan through alternative cross-border clearing channels beyond Swift system

Deal advances Beijing’s push to expand the digital yuan through alternative cross-border clearing channels beyond Swift system