CHINA’S Renminbi (RMB) is becoming a currency of note in international trade as demand for the currency increases to make cross-border trade and international payments, according to Asia United Bank (AUB).
In a statement, AUB said the United States’ protectionist policies on trade such as the imposition of additional tariffs on imports is causing uncertainties in the global economy.
This, however, is helping elevate the international profile of China’s RMB, which has been steadily climbing as an international currency.
AUB Head of Treasury Antonio V. Agcaoili Jr. said the increased demand for RMB also underscored its acceptance in the settlement of trade flows between Manila and Beijing.
“The Chinese government’s push for the opening of financial markets and Bank of China’s role in the Philippines to facilitate it enhances the ease of foreign exchange conversion from Philippine peso to RMB,” Agcaoili said.
“Bank of China also ensures a reliable payment infrastructure that benefits small businesses scattered all over the Chinese mainland through BOC’s extensive branch network,” he also said.
AUB said it is getting a boost from this growing demand for renminbi in the Philippines. The publicly listed universal bank was recently awarded for having the “Highest RMB Trading Volume for the Year 2024” given by the Philippine RMB Trading Community set up by 14 member banks in 2018.
This was the third consecutive year that AUB received the award from the Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd.—Manila Branch tasked to actively support the deepening development of RMB internationalization in the Philippines.
AUB said it also ranked first in terms of “highest incremental RMB-PHP trading volume in 2024 vs. 2023” and third in the “highest clearing volume” and “highest RMB deposits” categories.
“We recognize the growth of RMB trade as a key enabler in strengthening the economic ties between the Philippines and China, and we at AUB are proud to contribute to this important endeavor,” said AUB President Manuel A. Gomez.
AUB has a dedicated Proprietary Trading Desk headed by a professional trader with more than four decades of experience. It also relies on having a highly proactive and responsive IT team that developed most of its frontline platforms in-house, which led to the flexibility and scalability of its IT infrastructure.
Its front-end system includes a fully automated Straight-Thru-Processing (STP) payment platform that has garnered awards from AUB’s correspondent banking partners for its “almost flawless” record of processing over 99 percent of transactions “in an error-free manner and consistently over an extended period.”
The bank also invested in relationship management that focused on preaching the benefits of maintaining both PHP and RMB deposit accounts as “settlement accounts” for all clients’ forex trades and other transactional needs.
Image credits: AP/Kin Cheung
