In the past month, changes in the international situation have triggered violent fluctuations in global assets, and global asset prices have generally fallen.
Against this background, the popularity of RMB cross-border payments has increased significantly.
In March 2026, the average daily transaction volume of the RMB Cross-border Payment System (CIPS) exceeded 920 billion yuan, a record high in the past year; the average daily number of transactions exceeded 35,000, a significant increase from the previous month.
CIPS provides fund clearing and settlement services for cross-border RMB business of domestic and foreign participants and is an important financial infrastructure that meets international standards.
In recent years, the internationalization of RMB has been steadily promoted, its international status has been significantly improved, and CIPS business has also expanded simultaneously.
As of now, there are 194 direct participants and 1,597 indirect participants in CIPS.
“The fundamental support for the increase in CIPS transaction volume lies in the continued improvement of China’s economic strength and the status of the RMB in the international monetary system.” Zhao Qingming, deputy director of the HSBC Information Research Institute, said that as a major international currency, the hedging properties of the RMB are being recognized by more countries.
Zhao Qingming pointed out that since the beginning of the year, international geopolitical risks have been frequent, and the dominance of the US dollar in the international monetary system is being questioned more. The world urgently needs a new international currency to share functions such as international payment and reserve currency, which provides external opportunities for the internationalization of the RMB.
“With the deepening of China’s economic globalization, the demand for the use of RMB in cross-border trade and investment has increased significantly. CIPS will promote the use of RMB in cross-border trade, investment, and financial markets, and enhance the RMB’s international currency status.” Liao Bo, chief macroeconomic analyst at Northeast Securities Research Institute, said that the traditional clearing model that relies on overseas systems such as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) payment system has problems such as low efficiency, high cost, and being affected by the international political and economic environment.
The efficient and safe RMB cross-border clearing system built by CIPS can reduce the transaction costs of market entities.
Currently, the global coverage of CIPS continues to expand.
In June last year, CIPS announced the formal signing of cooperation agreements with six of the world’s leading foreign institutions, including Standard Bank, African Export-Import Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, and United Overseas Bank. This marked the first time that the CIPS system was successfully connected to core foreign banks in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and the Singapore offshore RMB center, and the global service network coverage achieved a historic leap.
With the optimization of cross-border RMB policies and the continuous advancement of various reforms, more and more business entities in neighboring countries and countries co-building the “Belt and Road” accept payment and settlement in RMB.
Liao Bo believes that the free trade zone and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will become new growth points for the use of RMB for cross-border payments.
my country’s bilateral monetary and financial cooperation with neighboring countries and countries co-building the “Belt and Road” continues to deepen.
“In the long term, the share of RMB in international payments will gradually increase.” Zhao Qingming said that on the one hand, the international monetary system is developing towards multi-polarity, the market’s trust in the US dollar is declining, and the RMB’s status as a major international currency has become increasingly prominent.
On the other hand, China’s economic performance is stable and improving, and trade and investment exchanges with other countries continue to deepen, which will inevitably promote the increase of the share of RMB in international payments.
