Over 1000 Financial Institutions Expected to Join China’s Renminbi Cross-border Payments System by End of 2020

The number of financial institutions that are part of China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) is expected to breach 1,000 in total by the end of 2020.

A report from the Nikkei at the end of August highlighted the rising influence of CIPS in the international payments sphere, with a rapidly increasing number of participating financial institutions.

As of the end of July CIPS had 984 participating financial institutions from 97 different countries and regions, with this number expected to breach the 1,000 threshold by the end of the year.

Financial institutions situated in the Asia-Pacific currently account for over 70% of CIPS participants.

CIPS is a payment system providing cross-border renminbi clearing and settlement services to participants, and forms a key part of China’s renminbi internationalisation infrastructure.

When it first went live in October 2015 CIPS’ s direct participants included 19 Chinese and foreign banks with a presence in mainland China, as well as 176 indirect participants across 47 different countries and regions.

CIPS only issues payments orders which are settled by the correspondent accounts of participating institutions, and does not facilitate the transfer of funds themselves.

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