And these people want to dethrone the dollar?
At a seminar for 150 clients today Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) announced that the bank has completed the first cross-border trade settlement transactions in RMB, following the official signing of the pilot program with Bank of China (Shanghai) and Bank of China (Hong Kong).
One payment of RMB from Standard Chartered (Hong Kong) Limited was initiated by Chapman International Macao Commercial Offshore Limited , a subsidiary of Gennon Industires Limited, to Dongguan Ming Hoi Dyeing and Finishing Fty Co., Ltd.
Chapman International Macao Commercial Offshore Limited in order to settle an invoice of Dongguan Ming Hoi Dyeing and Finishing Fty Co., Ltd., opened a new Trade Settlement Enterprise (“TSE”) account with Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) and instructed Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) to make the payment.
A second RMB payment was received by New Ocean Energy Holdings Limited (Stock code 342) RMB TSE account with Standard Chartered (Hong Kong) Limited from New Ocean Zhuhai. The transaction was received into Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited’s RMB Clearing Bank Account in Hong Kong.
Read that again, if necessary. This is a press release marking the fact that StanChart has become the first international bank to facilitate a two-way trade in Chinese yuan – between China and, err… Hong Kong.
For the record, StanChart is plugging an internet payment platform called Straight2Bank, and says it is ready to conduct “end-to-end transactions” for corporates in RMB between China and various other (non-Chinese) Asian counterparties, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
A milestone, perhaps, but one at the beginning of a very long journey.
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Related links:
Move over, Amero; presenting the “united future world currency” – FT Alphaville
RMB trade settlement service – Standard Chartered
Invoice: You owe us RMB – FT Alphaville