China, UK to boost RMB offshore use

World Today

Financial cooperation between China and the United Kingdom will be one of the key issues discussed during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the U.K. from Oct. 19-23.

The Financial Times newspaper said on Tuesday that Xi is expected to announce China’s plan to issue its Renminbi (RMB) sovereign bonds in London during his visit, following the U.K.’s insurance of the western world’s first sovereign RMB bond last October.

China and Britain have witnessed strengthened cooperation in financial services in recent years, and London has been played a key role in China’s efforts to push for the RMB’s internationalization.

In 2011, the U.K. established London as am RMB offshore business center and has seen rapid growth of RMB activity since then.

In mid-June of last year, during the visit of China’s Premier Li Keqiang to London, the China Construction Bank was named the official RMB clearing bank in London, followed by a series of memorandum of understandings signed by the two countries on wide-range collaboration across RMB trading, clearing, and product development.

Figures from the London market in 2014 showed that overall forex-related RMB businesses trading volumes in 2014 were up 143 percent from 2013, with average daily volumes reaching $61.5 billion, nearly six times as large as those in 2011, according to a report by the City of London Corporation.

Mark Boleat, chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Policy and Resources Committee told Xinhua on Monday that he hope Xi’s visit will “consolidate the basis for long term development of Chinese-British ties.”

Story by CCTV News