SWIFT’s RMB Tracker shows that South Korea’s RMB payments value increased by 563% between June 2013 and June 2014, making South Korea number eight in the world for RMB payments value, excluding China and Hong Kong.
In June 2014, 68.9% of all direct payments between South Korea and China/Hong Kong were in RMB, up from 32.8% in June 2013.
Martin Tricaud, CEO for HSBC Korea, comments on SWIFT’s announcement that South Korea has cracked the top ten in RMB payments:
“While China is Korea’s most important trade partner, receiving nearly a third of our goods exports, Korea has historically been underweight in the use of RMB. The latest SWIFT RMB Tracker, however, shows this is changing. Korea has taken a number of steps to support internationalisation of the RMB, including the BOK’s bilateral swap agreement, official dialogue on RMB trade and investment and RMB:KRW direct convertibility. As a result, Korean companies are increasingly attuned to RMB developments as part of their global trade and liquidity strategies and they’re capitalising on the opportunities the currency provides. Korea’s increasing use of the RMB is indicative of the continued maturing of this important currency. We expect the RMB to be one of the top three global trade currencies by 2015 and we forecast that the RMB will be fully convertible within 5 years.”
