Icap have added more CNY pairs to the EBS platform this week after they were the first broker to launch CNH/USD spot trading in September.
Cleared through Hong Kong, the new pairs; CNH/EUR, CNH/HKD and CNH/JPY, were made available on Monday.
Jeff Ward, head of Icap electronic broking in Asia, says: “The volume of CNY trade settlement in the global offshore market has increased from CNY3.6 billion in the second half of 2009 to CNY70.6 billion in the first half of 2010, according to data from the Peoples Bank of China. We expect activity to continue to grow and we are committed to working with our customers and the regulators to further augment the appeal of CNY as a cross-border trade settlement currency in the offshore market... these new currency pairs are in response to specific needs.”
At the launch of the first CNY pair in September, EBS had 15 counterparties signed up to trade. As of this week, EBS says, “the number of counterparties has grown to over 30 and EBS continues to see interest from dozens of counterparties.” This perhaps proves that although it may be a pain to set up a CNY nostro account in Hong Kong, the appeal of trading the pairs must be worth it.