(29 April 2016 – Asia) According to global transaction service provider, Swift, London has overtaken Singapore as the second-largest offshore yuan clearing centre in terms of payments processing volumes.
In March, the value of yuan payments in London was 21 percent more than at the same time in 2014, Swift said.
Hong Kong still processes 72.5 percent of all yuan payments, and the market shares of London and Singapore are 6.3 per cent and 4.6 per cent, respectively.
The payment processing firm also said that 40 percent of all payments made between the United Kingdom and China and Hong Kong are exchanged in the yuan, 24 per cent in Hong Kong dollars and 12 per cent in sterling.
The yuan remained the fifth most-used currency for global payments by value in March with a market share of 1.88 per cent, slightly higher than 1.74 per cent a month earlier, according to Swift.