China’s central bank, the People's Bank of China (PBoC), is extending the activities of its Digital Currency Research Lab beyond the country’s capital, local media outlet CNstock reports September 5.

The news reveals that the lab has opened a new fintech research center in Nanjing, the capital of China’s eastern Jiangsu province. The establishment of municipal fintech centers is reportedly intended to support the PBoC’s testing of its recently developed digital currency prototype, as the bank steers the prototype to production.

The Jiangsu center has been established in partnership with the municipal government, Nanjing University, the PBoC’s Jiangsu branch, and the Bank of Jiangsu, CNstock writes.

The center aims to serve as a bridge between “politics, production, study, research and use” and to this end will pool resources from across government departments, high-tech parks, financial institutions, and universities in order to pilot cutting-edge fintech applications and promote them across the country.

As CNstock notes, the new center has been founded several months after the Digital Currency Research Lab established its fully owned subsidiary in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, also in collaboration with the municipal government. Shenzhen is reportedly slated to be the first city to test the PBoC’s “legal” digital currency, and to provide the systematic preparation for its launch, including cooperation with the country’s regulators.

As Cointelegraph reported yesterday, the Shenzhen Central Sub-branch of PBoC officially launched the testing phase of its blockchain trade finance platform ahead of schedule.

PBoC’s lab has also been ratcheting up patent applications for its planned digital currency, which include several patents for a digital currency wallet. CNstock further reports that the PBoc has a host of newly unveiled patents, encompassing digital currency management methods and systems triggered by loan interest rate conditions, as well as digital currency exchange methods and systems.