Cross-border renminbi trade surges on payment preference

飞雪寒冰

Bank of China, the country’s fourth-largest lender by assets, has said it expects to see continued exponential growth in cross-border renminbi trade settlement as more companies in China and around the world choose to pay and be paid in the Chinese currency.
中国银行(BOC)表示，随着中国以及世界各地更多企业选择使用人民币支付和接受付款，跨境贸易人民币结算的幂次增长将会继续。按资产规模衡量，中行是中国第四大银行。

Total cross-border renminbi settlement last year hit Rmb510bn ($77.6bn) after the central bank expanded a pilot project allowing Chinese and foreign companies to settle trade transactions in renminbi. BoC’s branches across mainland China handled Rmb160bn, or 28 per cent of all the cross-border trade settled in renminbi last year, making it the market leader in the promising new business.
在中国央行扩大了允许中外企业用人民币结算外贸交易的试点项目后，去年跨境贸易人民币结算总额达到5100亿元人民币（合776亿美元）。中行在全国各地的分行经手了1600亿元人民币，相当于去年中国跨境贸易人民币结算总额的28%，使其在这一前景光明的新业务领域成为市场领先者。

飞雪寒冰

That figure was 100 times the Rmb1.6bn of renminbi cross-border trade it handled in 2009, due to the relaxation in China’s strict currency controls and Beijing’s efforts to internationalise the renminbi.
上述数据是中行在2009年经手的16亿元跨境贸易人民币结算额的100倍，原因在于中国放松了严格的资本管制，以及中央政府推动人民币国际化。

As proof of how quickly demand is growing, BoC said it handled Rmb40bn of renminbi trade settlement in January 2011 alone – a quarter of the total it handled in all of 2010.
为证明需求增长有多快，中行表示，该行仅在2011年1月就经手了400亿元的跨境贸易人民币结算额，相当于2010年经手总额的四分之一。

飞雪寒冰

“We are seeing huge demand for China currency from overseas financial institutions, corporations and individuals around the world,” said Cheng Jun, general manager of corporate global trade services at BOC. While global banks such as Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and HSBC have been rushing to offer renminbi settlement products and services, the figures released by BOC and its competitors are a reminder that China’s state-controlled banks are likely to be dominant forces in the new market segment.
“我们正看到世界各地金融机构、公司和个人对人民币的巨大需求，”中行公司金融总部国际结算模块总经理程军表示。尽管花旗集团(Citigroup)、德意志银行(Deutsche Bank)和汇丰(HSBC)等全球银行近期纷纷推出人民币结算产品和服务，但中行及其竞争对手发布的数据提醒人们：中国国家控制的银行很可能成为这一新市场领域的主导力量。

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s most valuable bank, said on Tuesday it had handled a total of Rmb150bn in renminbi cross-border trade by the end of January. Economists at HSBC expect that at least half of China’s trade flows with emerging markets countries could be settled in renminbi within three to five years, from less than 3 per cent currently.
全球市值最大的银行——中国工商银行(ICBC)周二表示，该行截至1月底总共经手了1500亿元人民币的跨境贸易人民币结算。汇丰经济学家预期，中国与新兴市场国家之间的贸易流动在3至5年内将至少有一半以人民币结算，目前这一比例尚不到3%。

飞雪寒冰

In a sign of growing international acceptance of the Chinese currency, Sony, the Japanese consumer electronics group, announced on Tuesday that it had established a currency trading operation in Hong Kong.
国际上越来越愿意接受人民币的迹象之一是，日本消费电子集团索尼(Sony)周二宣布，已在香港成立外汇交易子公司。

Renminbi-denominated cross-border trade totalled about Rmb440bn in the second half of last year, more than six times the Rmb70bn settled in renminbi in the first half after the government expanded a pilot scheme in June to cover 67,359 mainland Chinese exporters, up from just 365 exporters previously.
去年下半年，以人民币计价的跨境贸易总额约为4400亿元人民币，比上半年的700亿元高出六倍多。去年6月，中国政府扩大了人民币跨境贸易结算试点项目，将涵盖范围从365家中国出口商增至67359家出口商。

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Hundreds of Chinese companies last year started using the renminbi rather than the dollar in trade deals between their mainland and offshore divisions, often as a way to exploit pricing differentials between the mainland and offshore markets.
去年，数以百计的中国企业开始在本土和海外部门的贸易中使用人民币（而非美元），往往将此作为一种利用中国内地和海外市场价格差异的方式。