China's yuan jumps to fourth most-used world payment currency
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Version 0 of 1. China’s yuan has become the fourth most-used world payment currency, overtaking the Japanese yen, global transaction services organisation Swift has said. The yuan has surpassed seven currencies in the past three years as a payment currency and now only comes after the US dollar, the euro and the sterling. Overall, global yuan payments increased in value by 9.13% in August, while payments across all currencies decreased by 8.3%, according to Swift. The yuan reached a record high market share with 2.79% of global payments for the month, compared with 1.39% in January 2014. More than 100 countries used the yuan for payments in August, but more than 90% of flows were concentrated in 10 countries. Singapore processed 24.4% followed by the UK with 21.6%. More than 1,700 financial institutions made worldwide payments in the yuan, up 14% from a year earlier. About 600 of these do not have an office in China or Hong Kong. In the trade finance sector, the yuan has a 9.1% share in the global issuance of letters of credit by value, strengthening its position as the second most used currency for this purpose. Foreign exchange transactions in the yuan by value also increased by 20% in August from a month earlier, probably due to its devaluation by the People’s Bank of China, Swift said. More than 50% of the yuan foreign exchange trading outside China and Hong Kong is done with the UK, followed by the US, Singapore and France. |