Lu Yuan, Deputy Director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, stated at a panel discussion during Hong Kong FinTech Week that currently 30 onshore banks are acting as e-CNY operators, and efforts are underway to extend this capability to offshore banks. It is hoped that in the near future, the branches of existing operators in Hong Kong will be able to open e-CNY accounts for their corporate and individual clients to deepen cross-border integration. Meanwhile, the upgraded CBETS platform allows overseas banks to process 24/7 digital payments without the need to overhaul their legacy IT systems.