Taiwan’s RMB payments have grown 120 percent over the last six months according to SWIFT’s latest RMB tracker.
The SWIFT RMB tracker—launched in September 2011—provides monthly reporting on statistics to understand the progress made by RMB towards becoming an international currency.
Taiwan has moved up three positions to fourth (out of 136 countries exchanging RMB payments) overtaking the US and Australia.
Six months ago. SWIFT’s RMB tracker reviewed Taiwan’s potential to become the next major offshore RMB clearing centre. At that time, Taiwan was seventh out of 131 countries exchanging RMB payments worldwide with 24 percent of all payments exchanged between Taiwan and China/Hong Kong made using the Renminbi.
Nearly 44 percent of all payments made between Taiwan and China/Hong Kong are now exchanged in RMB.
Lisa O’Connor, RMB director at SWIFT, said: “We’ve been following the RMB developments in Taiwan very closely. These are not surprising growth figures given the historic and increasing level of direct activity between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. Domestic companies in Taiwan are now able to issue RMB-denominated bonds.”
“In February, the Taipei branch of Bank of China was assigned as the local RMB clearing bank and the Taiwan Stock Exchange has announced the desire to offer offshore RMB products. All of these positive moves should further support the growth of Taiwan’s RMB payments.”
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