China launches international payment system to globalise yuan

• China launched the first phase of its much anticipated China International Payment System (CIPS), a milestone in bolstering yuan’s global usage and furthering cross-border clearing of its currency from the Chinese mainland instead of offshore centres abroad.
• The CIPS provides capital settlement and clearing services for cross-border yuan transactions for financial institutions domestically and abroad.
• China’s yuan became one of the world’s top five payment currencies in November 2014, overtaking the Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar, according to global transaction services organisation SWIFT.