Over a third of world's financial firms are using RMB to pay China and Hong Kong

Asia's the leader in RMB adoption.

SWIFT’s latest RMB Tracker shows that over the past two years, RMB payments worldwide have nearly tripled in value, and the RMB is now supported by a much broader base with 35% more financial institutions using the RMB for payments with China and Hong Kong.

According to a release from SWIFT, today, more than one third of financial institutions around the world are now using the RMB for payments to China and Hong Kong.

Asia leads the way at nearly 40% adoption, with an increase of +22% since 2012. The Americas follows at 32% adoption with an increase of +44%.

Here’s more from SWIFT:

Europe falls closely behind the Americas at 31% adoption with an increase of +47%, and the Middle East and Africa is at 26% adoption, with an increase of +83% during the same two-year period.

“It is encouraging to see that RMB usage by financial institutions and corporates is steadily growing”, says Stephen Gilderdale, Head of New Business Development at SWIFT.

“More financial institutions using the RMB will improve the utility of the currency in Hong Kong, China and other offshore centres.

As the currency continues to grow, opportunities will arise leading to the development of new products and services denominated in RMB. These new products and services will help drive greater use of the RMB globally while making it a more efficient currency to manage.”

Overall, the RMB strengthened its position as the seventh-ranked global payments currency and accounted for 1.64% of global payments, an increase from 1.57% in July 2014.

In August 2014, the value of RMB global payments decreased by 6%, whilst all currencies dropped by 10%, which is a trend most likely attributable to lower seasonal payments activity.