Shanghai, HK stimulate int’l settlements in yuan   

上海香港同推新政促进人民币国际结算能力

中国人民银行上海分行近日推出经常账户跨境人民币结算银行审核流程优化试点项目。此前不久，中央政府在香港宣布推出一系列新政以促进该地离岸人民币市场的发展。

Shanghai (CNS) -- Endorsement policies for cross-border settlement in yuan by Shanghai and Hong Kong are significantly boosting the international yuan trade market, according to banking professionals with J.P. Morgan, DBS and ANZ.

The Shanghai office of the People's Bank of China has launched a pilot program to optimize the review process for international renminbi (RMB) settlement for the accounts of some local companies, said David Koh, head of Treasury & Securities Services at J.P. Morgan China.

China is continuously expanding Hong Kong's advantages in offshore yuan settlement, said economist Zhou Hongli with the Development Bank of Singapore.

China is not extending offshore yuan settlement services to regions other than Hong Kong, which will lead the SAR toward becoming a dominant offshore yuan trade hub, Zhou added.

Other offshore yuan trade hubs have also been developing rapidly, as demonstrated by April's global offshore yuan deposit, which topped 85.4 billion yuan, said Liu Ligang, chief economist at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) China. 55.2 billion of that came from Hong Kong, and the rest was contributed by London, Singapore and Taiwan, he said.

Liu estimated that the global offshore yuan deposit total will reach more than one trillion yuan by the end of the year.