Standard Chartered Bank has teamed with officials from the People’s Bank of China, China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange for a series of roadshows to promote renminbi trade settlement in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. This is the first time that officials from government and regulatory bodies in China have partnered with an international bank on a roadshow.
China’s state council announced the cross-border trade settlement scheme in April 2009 – a first tentative step towards convertibility of the Renminbi and its use as a reserve currency.
Whereas HSBC was the first international bank to complete trade settlement remittances and cross-border Renminbi documentary credit transactions in July 2009, StanChart was the first to facilitate two-way Renminbi-denominated trade between Hong Kong and China and was the first foreign bank to be appointed an agent and settlement bank for Renminbi cross-border settlement.
StanChart says it, “offers the full suite of RMB product services to corporates and financial institutions across Asean [Association of South East Asian Nations] and north-east Asia.”
The official Chinese support of the Asean roadshow comes after StanChart received a letter of commendation recently from the Chinese government for its efforts in promoting the scheme.