According to SWIFT data, the Chinese yuan overtook the Canadian and Australian dollar as global payments currency in November 2014, and now takes position behind the Japanese Yen, British pound, Euro and US dollar.
After nearly a year firmly positioned at #7, the Renminbi (“RMB”) has entered the top five of world payment currencies since November 2014, overtaking both the Canadian Dollar and the Australian Dollar by value. Just two years ago, in January 2013, the RMB was ranked at position #13 with a share of 0.63%. In December 2014, the RMB reached a record high share of 2.17% in global payments by value and now trails the Japanese Yen which has a share of 2.69%.
Further to SWIFT’s announcement, we spoke to Vina Cheung, Global Head of RMB Internationalisation for Payments and Cash Management at HSBC, for a reaction to the news:
“The RMB is increasingly becoming the currency of choice for international payments. Moving from 13th place to number 5 in just two years is phenomenal progress. We expect the rapid uptake of the RMB to continue in 2015 and beyond,” said Vina Cheung. “Following 102% growth in 2014 we anticipate the RMB will overtake the JPY as Asia’s top global currency in Q2 2015.”
