Signal Renminbi payment network and trade-finance share expand

Summary

The renminbi's cross-border interbank payment system, CIPS, plays a key role in expanding yuan settlement, and its participating banks rose from 50 in six countries at launch in 2015 to 1,478 in 119 countries in 2025. Around 133 banks joined in the past two years alone, which the report links to restrictions on Russian banks' access to SWIFT after the war in Ukraine and to closer China-Middle East cooperation. The yuan's share of China's own trade settlement rose steadily from 17.8 percent in 2018 to 30.5 percent in 2024. According to the Bank for International Settlements, the yuan's share of global trade finance reached 7.6 percent in 2024, overtaking the euro at 5.4 percent for second place. Its share of global over-the-counter foreign exchange turnover also rose from 4.33 percent in 2019 to 7.01 percent in 2022 and 8.52 percent in 2025, against 89 percent for the dollar.