Cross-border settlement comes to Russia

In global trade, the beginning of the liberalization of China’s currency was one of the most important developments of 2010. In mid-December, its impact reached Russia when HSBC announced its first cross-border renminbi trade settlement transaction there for a subsidiary of sport retail chain Sportmaster. The advent of cross-border renminbi settlement means that Russian companies no longer have to convert Russian roubles to US dollars and then to Chinese renminbi. A process that used to take three days now takes one, substantially reducing traders’ exposure to exchange rate volatility.