The People's Bank of China, which issued a new 100 yuan note today, has been transportingever increasing quantities of renminbi to foreign countries to meet a growing demand for China'scurrency.
The central bank transported 50 billion yuan ($7.9 billion) in cash to Hong Kong, the country'soffshore RMB center, during the first nine months of the year, an increase of more than 46percent year-on-year, according to a bank insider in Shenzhen.
"From 2004 to 2007, we shipped less than 5 billion yuan cash to Hong Kong every year. Wetransported about 27 billion yuan cash annually since the demand for RMB cash surged in 2008,"said Zhang Jianjun, director of the central bank's subcentral branch in Shenzhen, Guangdongprovince, which is responsible for 83 percent of China's cross-border RMB cash transportation inChina.
In 2007, the central bank launched the first offshore RMB cash storage in Hong Kong managedby the Bank of China, which provides cash and flow-back services for overseas markets. So far, 221 foreign banks from 19 countries in Asia, North America, Europe, Oceania and Africa, haveopened cash accounts with RMB Clearing Banks in Hong Kong.
RMB cash mainly crosses borders in one of two ways: carried by individuals and transported bycommercial banks.
Since 2005, Chinese citizens and foreigners who leave or enter the country can carry no morethan 20,000 yuan per person.
Chinese commercial banks in border areas cooperate with banks in neighboring countries oncash transportation, based on the bilateral local currency settlement agreements for border trade.
The central bank also authorized offshore RMB clearing banks in Hong Kong and Taiwan totransport cash.
The volume of cross-border RMB cash transported by banks is steadily increasing, according toa statement from the central bank. Last year, RMB cash transported in China reached 39.9 billionyuan, while 11.7 billion yuan was transported out. The total transported amount rose 23.2 percentfrom a year earlier.
"The increasing use of RMB cash in offshore markets will promote outbound tourism andbusiness, as well as strengthen confidence of RMB internationalization among overseasinvestors," said Lo Pingwa, head of the Bank-wide Operation Department of Bank of China inHong Kong.
The latest report from global transaction service provider SWIFT showed that the RMB remainsthe fifth-largest international payment currency by value, and accounted for 2.45 percent of globalpayments in September.
Michael Moon, head of payments for Asia Pacific at SWIFT, said that it is important to note thatthe RMBs underlying growth is trending positive.
"Such a trend is supported by an increasing number of corporates adopting the RMB for tradesettlements, and a rising number of banks supporting those payments," Moon said.
The central regards the RMB note as China's business card and the new optical features of the2015 version of the 100 yuan banknote are designed to improve protection againstcounterfeiting, with some advanced technologies especially developed for vending machinesand ATMs.
The changes also make it easier for the public to discern a fake banknote, as the new noteshows a more obvious security strip and a special color for the central "100".
Currency detectors designed to detect counterfeit RMB notes have been upgraded for the newnotes in domestic and foreign banks.
The article transsshipment from China Daily
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