The People’s Bank of China released a financial statistics report for May 2026. The report shows that in May, the amount of cross-border RMB settlement under the current account was 1.67 trillion yuan, of which trade in goods, trade in services and other current accounts were 1.28 trillion yuan and 0.39 trillion yuan respectively; the amount of cross-border RMB settlement of direct investment was 0.58 trillion yuan, of which overseas direct investment and foreign direct investment were 0.22 trillion yuan and 0.36 trillion yuan respectively.
Compared with macro indicators such as social financing, loans, deposits and money supply, cross-border RMB settlement data are more directly connected to trade receipts and payments, cross-border clearing and payment service capabilities.
This set of data not only reflects the scale of RMB use in cross-border scenarios, but also corresponds to the business capabilities of banks, clearing networks, cross-border payment institutions and foreign trade service institutions.
Goods trade is still the main scenario for cross-border RMB settlement.
In May, the cross-border RMB settlement amount of trade in goods was 1.28 trillion yuan, accounting for the majority of cross-border RMB settlement under the current account.
Behind this are China’s import and export trade, supply chain transactions and daily collection and payment needs of enterprises.
For foreign trade companies, using RMB for cross-border settlement can reduce the exchange link to a certain extent and reduce the uncertainty caused by exchange rate fluctuations. It can also help companies form more stable funding arrangements in quotation, collection, payment and reconciliation.
However, whether cross-border RMB settlement can be used in more transactions depends on the willingness of domestic enterprises, as well as the acceptance of counterparties, overseas account arrangements, local financial infrastructure, settlement convenience, and the service capabilities of banks and payment institutions.
For enterprises, currency selection must ultimately serve transaction efficiency, capital costs, and capital security.
The settlement amount of trade in services and other current accounts is 0.39 trillion yuan, which also accounts for a certain proportion in cross-border RMB settlements under current accounts.
Compared with goods trade, service trade scenarios are more scattered and may involve cross-border e-commerce, platform services, aviation and travel, education, consulting, software services, digital content and other types of transactions.
Relevant transactions often feature high frequency, multiple entities, complex data review, and long business chains, which place higher requirements on the system processing, compliance review, transaction identification, and customer service capabilities of payment institutions and banks.
In these scenarios, banks and payment institutions need to process more detailed transaction information and more complex data review.
What enterprises need to complete often includes account opening, transaction background review, fund settlement, declaration coordination, accounting verification and exception handling.
It is difficult for a single channel capability to cover the complete needs of enterprises in cross-border operations.
The amount of cross-border RMB settlement of direct investment was 0.58 trillion yuan, of which 0.22 trillion yuan was overseas direct investment and 0.36 trillion yuan was foreign direct investment.
Compared with trade receipts and payments, direct investment settlement places more emphasis on capital project management, fund use compliance, account system arrangements and follow-up information submission.
The use of RMB in direct investment scenarios also covers two-way capital flow scenarios such as corporate external investment and foreign direct investment.
The monthly scale of cross-border RMB settlement has reached the level of one trillion yuan, which has brought business space to cross-border payment institutions and also raised higher service requirements.
On the one hand, enterprises’ cross-border operations have still increasing demands for RMB receipts and payments, domestic and overseas accounts, exchange arrangements, fund distribution, and reconciliation management.
On the other hand, the expansion of RMB settlement scale does not mean that cross-border payment institutions will naturally receive a share of the increased business.
Those that can truly meet the needs of enterprises are still institutions with bank cooperation, domestic and overseas accounts, transaction review, clearing docking and exception handling capabilities.
Especially in scenarios such as trade in goods, trade in services, and direct investment, information such as capital flow, order flow, logistics, contracts, invoices, customs declarations, and declarations need to form relatively clear correspondences.
If a cross-border payment institution lacks compliance review, transaction identification and data processing capabilities, even if it has a payment channel, it will be difficult to undertake more complex enterprise-level cross-border settlement needs.
The cross-border RMB settlement data in May shows that the cross-border use of RMB has been reflected in specific transaction scenarios.
For the payment industry, the focus of competition in cross-border RMB business is shifting from single payment processing to comprehensive service capabilities such as accounts, declarations, settlements, reconciliations and compliance reviews.
The more normalized the cross-border use of RMB is, the higher the requirements of enterprises for comprehensive payment service capabilities will be.
