Taiwan ranks 7th in RMB payments by value

With its jump from 57th place in 2011, could Taiwan be the next offshore RMB clearing centre?

According to the RMB tracker, a monthly report on key statistics available only from SWIFT, the People's Bank of China and the Central Bank of Taiwan signed a currency clearing memorandum of understanding at the end of August, including the intention to appoint an RMB settlement bank for Taiwan.

"This may further drive adoption of the RMB by Taiwan, already using the renminbi for nearly 24% of all its payments by value, according to SWIFT’s Business Intelligence statistics."

Here's more from SWIFT:

In August 2012:
- Excluding Hong Kong and China, Taiwan was #7 by RMB payments value (out of 131 countries exchanging RMB payments), up from #57 in July 2011.
- RMB payments by Taiwan now represent 24% of the total payments value with China and Hong Kong (up from 9% in January 2012).
- Taiwan’s RMB payments value increased by 35.4% over July 2012.

Overall, RMB usage worldwide grew by 15.6%, between July 2012 and August 2012, compared to an average decrease of 0.9% across all currencies. For the second consecutive month, the RMB moved up one position to become world currency #14 with a market share of 0.53% (versus 0.45% in July 2012). It has overtaken the Danish krone at 0.47% but is some way behind the Russian ruble (0.63%).