Chinese yuan accounts for 1.76% of global payments in Feb’16
SWIFT has earlier today published the latest edition of its RMB Tracker, the monthly report that monitors the international adoption of the Chinese currency.
The yuan accounted for 1.76% of international payments by value in February 2016, down from a share of 2.45% in January 2016. Despite the fall, the Chinese currency remains at #5 in the ranking of world payments currencies, lagging behind the Japanese yen, which is at #4 with a share of 3.16%.
The top three world payments currencies remain the same, with US dollar at #1 with a share of 41.40%, followed by the Euro with a share of 31.47% and the British pound with a share of 8.78%.
The latest SWIFT RMB Tracker shows that in February 2016, 1,131 banks were using the RMB for payments with China and Hong Kong, representing 37% of all institutions exchanging payments with China and Hong Kong across all currencies. This is an 18% rise over the last two years. The bulk of these institutions are located in Asia-Pacific (557), followed by Europe (376), the Americas (124) and then Africa and Middle East (74).