China to set up yuan clearing system in South Africa
By admin on 2015-07-20

China's central bank signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Tuesday with its South African counterpart to set up a yuan clearing system in the country.

The MOU outlines the clearing and settlement of the yuan in South Africa, said the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).

"Both central banks agreed to coordinate and cooperate on the supervision, oversight and clearing of the yuan in South Africa and also to exchange information in order to facilitate the continuous improvement and development of bilateral trade," said Candice Jeffreys, Media Coordinator of the SARB.

China's central bank said that the yuan clearing system will be helpful for businesses and financial institutions in both countries to do cross-border trade, further promoting investment and financial flows between both sides.

China has been South Africa's largest export partner for six years since 2009. In 2014, bilateral trade volume between both countries reached over 60 billion US dollars, a 40-fold increase from a decade ago.

The MOU marks another important milestone for raising the international level of the Chinese currency. The yuan had become the world's second trade financing currency as of December 2014, according to Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT).