According to Swift’s Monthly RMB Tracker report, Europe represents 10% of the Renminbi payments worldwide in value. For the past year, four European countries have been settling into the top 10, excluding China and Hong Kong.
- For most of these European hubs, Greater China still remains the main trading partner in RMB. However, there seems to be a noticeable shift in business for some countries like Luxembourg, with an increasing share of truly offshore flows (no Greater China leg).
- In July of a bilateral currency swap agreement between People’s Bank of China and Swiss National Bank is also putting Switzerland in the line to become a new RMB hub in Europe.
- RMB strengthened its position as the seventh most used global payments currency and accounted for 1.57% of global payments.
Please find below a comment from Vina Cheung, HSBC’s Global Head of RMB Internationalisation, Payments and Cash Management, in response to SWIFT’s announcement that Europe represents 10% of the Renminbi payments worldwide in value, while European payments directly exchanged with China and Hong Kong in RMB have increased by 105%, showing a considerable upwards trend in RMB usage.
“The fact that Renminbi payments between Europe and Greater China have more than doubled in a year is extremely encouraging news for European businesses and governments,” said Vina Cheung, Global Head of RMB Internationalisation, Payments and Cash Management, HSBC, . “It shows businesses are seizing the opportunity presented by China’s currency liberalisation programme to deepen their commercial relationships in the world’s second largest economy. It also shows government efforts to build hubs for RMB trading and investment in Europe are starting to bear fruit.”
