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China moves closer to offshore yuan market

By Yang Zhen (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-20 08:12

A pedestrian walks past an HSBC Holdings Plc bank branch in Hong Kong. [Agencies]

Allowing overseas banks to sell yuan bonds in Hong Kong has moved China one step closer to building an offshore yuan market, analysts said.

HSBC and Bank of East Asia confirmed yesterday that their China units had won approval from Chinese regulators to become the first overseas banks to sell yuan bonds in Hong Kong.

"I would like to see more overseas companies generally issue bonds in China as a way to raise finance, as this would help promote the internationalization of the yuan and ease liquidity problems in the developed world," said Ben Simpfendorfer, chief China economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Hong Kong.

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HSBC believed its yuan bonds issue would help establish a representative pricing benchmark for foreign banks requiring funding and also boost the development of Hong Kong's offshore yuan market, said Richard Yorke, president and CEO of HSBC China, in an e-mail statement yesterday.

Bank of East Asia also received approval and is preparing to arrange yuan bonds in the city, the bank's spokeswoman Salina Tong was quoted by Bloomberg as saying yesterday.

Both banks said they still didn't have specific plans on the quantum of yuan bonds they were planning to issue.

China has been promoting greater use of the yuan for trade and investment as an effort to shield the country's export-oriented economy from the impact of exchange rate fluctuations.

The central government unveiled a pilot project on April 8 to allow international trade settled in the yuan in Shanghai and four cities in Guangdong, the southern province bordering Hong Kong.

At the same time, Hong Kong also aims to establish itself as an offshore yuan finance center to help protect itself from the fallout from the global credit crisis. Premier Wen Jiabao met with Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang in April and promised to help the city.

Hong Kong banks have been able to accept yuan deposits since 2004 and stores have increasingly welcomed payment in the yuan since 2003.

However, according to Joseph Yam from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the region's central bank, the yuan deposits in Hong Kong banks are deposited with the People's Bank of China, through the yuan clearing bank in Hong Kong.

Yuan bonds sale by foreign banks will offer Hong Kong banks a new option for their yuan deposits. "As the Hong Kong yuan market is still in its infancy, the decision is an important step toward spurring its development," said Simpfendorfer.

Five Chinese banks, including Bank of China, China Construction Bank and China Development Bank, have issued yuan bonds in Hong Kong since 2007.