OREANDA-NEWS. October 07, 2013. BOC released Cross-border RMB Index (CRI) to the world, thus becoming Chinese first banking financial institution independently making and releasing an index related to RMB internationalization.

As Chinese most internationalized bank, BOC focuses on the situation of cross-border trade, overseas flow and use of the RMB all the time, and has been committed to providing the best cross-border RMB products and services to domestic and overseas customers. CRI shows customers the information of cross-border use and overseas flow of the RMB in an all-round, vivid and intuitive way so that customers can better choose cross-border RMB products and services and duly explore business opportunities from RMB internationalization, and serves as a wind vane reflecting the situation of RMB internationalization to all walks of life.

CRI follows up the use rate of the RMB in the complete capital cycle from cross-border outflow, overseas flow to cross-border backflow, reflecting the activity level of RMB use in cross-border and overseas trade. Consisting of outflow, flow, backflow, the index follows up capital flow via current accounts, flow via capital accounts, overseas flow, etc.

CRI has distinct features. In terms of penetration point, BOC set out to make the index from the flow process of cross-border RMB capital cycle; in terms of measuring indicator, CRI is uniformly measured on the basis of flow indicator. Additionally, CRI has characteristics such as intuitive interpretation and prominent indication.

According to index results announced by BOC, CRI rose to 186 in the second quarter of 2013, increased by 86 percent from the base period--the fourth quarter of 2011 and 40.91 percent from the second quarter of 2012; but it dropped slightly by 1.59 percent compared to the first quarter of 2013, showing that the activity level of cross-border RMB use is rising with stable trend overall despite slight adjustments and fluctuations recently.

By late August 2013, BOC's accumulative cross-border RMB settlement volume had approached 7 trillion yuan, staying ahead in the industry. BOC has established a global RMB clearing system involving three clearing modes, and has become the only RMB clearing bank in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Malaysia as well as the first RMB clearing bank recognized by the Luxembourgian government. CRI's release is not only BOC's another move to improve its cross-border service capacity, but also is of positive significance for Chinese-funded banks to gain the discourse power in cross-border and overseas RMB operations.