Favorable policies for cross-border payments; Lianlian Digital, having already established a presence, is expected to benefit.

At the end of 2025, the cross-border payment sector received significant policy support, undoubtedly presenting a new opportunity for related companies. Lianlian Digital (2598.HK), an industry leader, is poised to reap substantial benefits from this policy dividend thanks to its early strategic positioning. Recently, the People’s Bank of China and eight other departments jointly issued the “Opinions on Financial Support for Accelerating the Construction of the Western Land-Sea New Corridor.” This document proposes a series of important measures to promote the development of cross-border payments, the first being the expansion of RMB cross-border use. Strengthening bilateral monetary cooperation with Southeast Asian and Central Asian countries creates extremely favorable conditions for RMB cross-border use. In the context of a globalized economy, the expansion of RMB cross-border use helps enhance my country’s voice in the international financial arena and provides a more convenient and stable payment environment for Chinese companies’ foreign trade. Furthermore, the opinion also proposes important directions for exploring international cooperation in digital finance. It supports provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) along the Belt and Road Initiative to participate in multilateral central bank digital currency bridge projects, and promotes the use of central bank digital currencies in cross-border payments with Thailand, Hong Kong, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and other countries. This is not only an important attempt in my country’s digital finance field, but will also bring new ideas and models to the development of global cross-border payments. At the same time, the central bank has issued an action plan for the digital RMB, and the new generation of digital RMB measurement framework, management system, operating mechanism, and ecosystem will be officially launched on January 1, 2026. The introduction of this series of policies marks a solid step forward for my country in the fields of cross-border payments and digital finance. Against this policy backdrop, Lianlian Digital, as a leader in China’s digital payment solutions market and an enabler of global trade digitalization, is expected to fully benefit. Lianlian Digital has consistently prioritized the circulation services of the digital yuan as a key development strategy, investing significant resources in in-depth research. As early as 2021, Lianlian Pay, a subsidiary of Lianlian Digital, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Digital Currency Research Institute to jointly promote the application of the digital yuan in domestic and cross-border payment scenarios. Through persistent efforts, Lianlian Digital successfully connected to the digital yuan interoperability platform and conducted pilot tests in multiple scenarios such as transportation, retail, and public services in pilot areas like Qingdao. These pilot projects have provided Lianlian Digital with rich experience, giving it a leading position in the application and promotion of the digital yuan. Furthermore, Lianlian Digital previously signed a cooperation agreement with the Bank of China. Both parties will leverage their respective business characteristics and resource advantages to jointly explore the application and innovation of the digital yuan within their respective ecosystems, and actively promote its implementation in pilot areas and related scenarios such as trade and services. These initiatives have further improved Lianlian Digital’s layout in the digital payment field and laid a solid foundation for its further development in the context of favorable cross-border payment policies. In conclusion, with increasingly favorable policies for cross-border payments, Lianlian Digital, with its forward-looking strategy and strong technological capabilities, is poised to achieve even greater success in this field and make a significant contribution to the development of cross-border payments and digital finance in my country.