OREANDA-NEWS. July 26, 2013. Yuan clearing services in Singapore has been running smoothly since the opening of Singapore yuan clearing bank ("clearing bank") on May 27. The Singapore yuan clearing bank provides highly efficient and reliable payment clearing services for participating banks. Over RMB 60 billion has been cleared through the clearing bank during the first month of operation, marking a "good beginning".

On February 8, 2013, People's Bank of China authorized ICBC's Singapore Branch as the yuan clearing bank in Singapore. This is the first time that China's central bank has designated a Chinese yuan clearing bank in a foreign country, a move that will further boost the yuan's global presence.

As of June 27, 52 banks from Singapore and other countries opened RMB clearing accounts in Singapore yuan clearing bank to become participating banks. Among them, 39 participating banks used the RMB services offered by the clearing bank. The clearing bank offered a full range of services during the first month of operation. That included clearing of cross-border remittances for settlement of trades between Singapore and Mainland China, clearing of local remittances, offshore clearing between the clearing bank and Hong Kong market, interbank cash transfer, fixed deposit, currency exchange against RMB, interbank lending/borrowing and clearing for RMB bond issuance. Chartered Bank, Development Bank of Singapore, HSBC Singapore and United Overseas Bank have issued offshore RMB bonds to a sum of RMB 2.5 billion. All bonds issued by the above four banks were cleared with the help of Singapore yuan clearing bank. This marks the active role played by the clearing bank in raising and using RMB capital overseas.

An ICBC official said, as the yuan clearing bank in Singapore, ICBC Singapore Branch will step up the effort to improve the service quality and efficiency, step up innovation on services and products. The Branch will dutifully perform its right given by People's Bank of China and Monetary Authority of Singapore to move forward Singapore's offshore RMB market.