SWIFT announced on Friday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with China International Payment Service Corp., (CIPS Co.).
The MOU details plans for strategic co-operation to develop China’s Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) leveraging SWIFT as a channel to connect CIPS with SWIFT’s global user community.
SWIFT Chief Executive of Asia Pacific and EMEA, Alain Raes and CIPS Executive Director, Li Wei signed the MOU in Beijing on March 25, 2016.
Li said,
“China International Payment Service Corp. is looking forward to benefitting from SWIFT’s platform and services to provide an efficient and convenient channel to the global financial community. We aim to provide an inclusive platform to capture cross-border RMB flows to all types of participants which will significantly extend the reach of RMB internationalisation”.
Raes said,
“SWIFT is a global messaging provider supporting more than 150 payment and settlement systems, and CIPS is a payment system. There are natural synergies between global financial messaging services, such those provided by SWIFT, and payment systems. Working with such market infrastructures is at the heart of our business”.
To date, 1,700 financial institutions have made RMB transactions via the SWIFT network. SWIFT has operated in China for more than 30 years and nearly 400 Chinese financial institutions and corporations are connected to SWIFT today.
According to the latest SWIFT RMB Tracker, the Chinese currency stayed at #5 in the ranking of world payments currencies in January 2016. The RMB accounted for 2.45% of global payments in January, up from a share of 2.31% in December 2015.
You can view the official announcement on the MoU between SWIFT and CIPS by clicking here.