Peak Implements Chinese Digital Currency and Welcomes China’s 2nd Largest Steel Supplier to its Ecosystem

Peak Fintech Group Inc. (CSE: PKK) (OTCQX: PKKFF) (“Peak” or the “Company”), an innovative Fintech service provider to the Chinese commercial lending sector, today announced that its Gold River and Cubeler Lending Hub platforms are now ready to support China’s new Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DC/EP).

Unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, China’s DC/EP is legal tender, it’s backed by yuan deposits, centralized and not anonymous. It is managed by China’s Central Bank, which requires the country’s banks to convert a part of their yuan holdings into DC/EP form and distribute them to businesses and citizens via mobile technology. The DC/EP took over five years to develop and is expected to help bring China’s unbanked population into the mainstream economy and accelerate the country’s move to a cashless society.

Peak began preparing its platforms for the DC/EP last month with the hiring of former People’s Bank of China senior manager, Mr. Wenjun Wu, as a special advisor to assist the Company in that capacity. Through Mr. Wu’s expertise in the matter and his relationship with the Postal Savings Bank of China (http://www.psbc.com/en/), one of a select few banks with the DC/EP API, Peak’s platforms are now among the first to provide clients with the ability to conduct DC/EP transactions. In addition to its inherent security features, the DC/EP offers several benefits to businesses and financial institutions alike. For instance, loans and credit transactions conducted in DC/EP will on average carry lower interest rates than similar transactions conducted in regular yuan and transactions will be settled instantly, all of which are expected to make DC/EP transactions the preferred way of conducting business in China, and a way to increase transaction volume on Peak’s platforms. The Company plans to run a pilot project beginning later this month with a few supply-chain financing related transactions before making the feature available to all Gold River and Lending Hub clients.

Peak’s DC/EP pilot project will coincide with the arrival of Xingcheng Special Steel Works Ltd. (“XSSW”) (https://xctg.citicsteel.com/) to the Cubeler Lending Hub Ecosystem. XSSW is a subsidiary of conglomerate CITIC Ltd. (https://www.citic.com/en/). It’s the 2nd largest supplier of specialized steel products in China servicing a variety of industries and manufacturers with products such as bearings, alloy steel wires, plates, rods and springs that go into the making of numerous products. Peak and XSSW were connected through the Jiangyin Financial Centre following a series of financing requests from Jiangyin manufacturers to purchase material from XSSW. By officially adding XSSW to Lending Hub’s list of approved suppliers and working in partnership with XSSW, Peak will now be able to offer its supply-chain financing services to all XSSW clients through joint marketing initiatives.