RMB accounts for 11.2 pct of payments value between China, other nations: SWIFT

China's currency, the renminbi (RMB), was used for 11.2 percent of total payments value between China and the rest of the world last month, up from 6.2 percent 18 months ago, Belgium-based global payment services company SWIFT said late Wednesday in a statement.

SWIFT's latest RMB tracker showed that 15 more countries are now using the RMB for more than 10 percent of their payment value with China's mainland and Hong Kong compared to April 2013.

In total, 50 countries out of the 161 that exchanged payments with China's mainland and Hong Kong last month have crossed the 10 percent threshold, SWIFT data shows.

The 10 percent milestone, also known as "crossing the RMB River", is a threshold set by SWIFT to measure the weight of RMB payments value with Hong Kong and China's mainland compared to other currencies. It is an indication of countries that cross the river and their level of adoption of the RMB.

Since April 2013, Germany increased its RMB usage with China's mainland and Hong Kong by 151 percent. RMB payments by Canada (up 346 percent) and Malaysia (up 48 percent) are expected to grow even further following the latest announcements of a currency swap agreement and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Chinese central bank, SWIFT data showed.

Compared to April 2013, the Chinese currency has crossed the river threshold with a growth of 181 percent, reaching 11.2 percent of total payments in value exchanged with China's mainland and Hong Kong, it said.

Over the last 18 months, there was a significant increase in RMB usage for payments with China's mainland and Hong Kong, said head of SWIFT business intelligence Astrid Thorsen.

Most of this growth is from early adopters and main RMB clearing centers, such as Singapore and the United Kingdom, but increasingly, new countries such as Germany, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Sweden are contributing to the RMB's growth, he said.

"This is a good sign for RMB adoption rates and internationalization," Thorsen said.

Overall, the RMB kept its position as the seventh-ranked payments currency in the world last month, despite a decreased market share from 1.72 percent to 1.59 percent, SWIFT said.

In October, the value of RMB global payments value decreased by 7.2 percent which is below the average growth of 0.4 percent for all currencies, SWIFT data showed.

The SWIFT RMB Tracker, launched in September 2011, provides monthly reporting on key statistics to understand the progress made by the RMB toward becoming an international currency.