Bank of China’s Zhoushan branch used mBridge, the multilateral central bank digital currency platform, on October 16 to settle a local fuel supplier’s cross-border bunkering income in e-CNY, with an electronic bunker delivery note (E-BDN) as the settlement document. Mobile Payment Network reported that it was the first such transaction in the Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone and that the bank built the model with 浙江自由贸易试验区大宗数贸科技有限公司, a commodity digital-trade company in the zone.
Why it matters: Settling against an electronic delivery note over mBridge removes the chain of correspondent banks, shortens the time money spends in transit and leaves a traceable digital record of the trade behind each payment. Bonded bunkering is a major part of Zhoushan’s shipping trade and runs on repeat payments from foreign ship operators, so a working template there gives e-CNY a steady flow of trade receipts to settle.
Source: 移动支付网 Mobile Payment Network, October 23, 2026 (Chinese-language source, translated)
Image: Tyg728, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
