OREANDA-NEWS. July 03, 2014. ICBC (New Zealand) has recently conducted the first direct NZD-RMB transaction for the customer in New Zealand, which is of great significance in promoting RMB settlement in trades between enterprises of China and New Zealand.

On March 18, the two countries jointly announced that direct NZD-RMB transactions would be launched to reduce exchange cost for economic entities and facilitate the use of RMB and NZD in bilateral trade and investment.

According to an executive with ICBC, this direct NZD-RMB transaction is an exchange purchase business under trade in goods. The Chinese importer paid in RMB, and the exporter in New Zealand carried out direct transaction at ICBC (New Zealand) to exchange RMB into NZD for daily operation. Before such direct transaction was available, customers had to bear extra currency conversion cost by converting RMB into USD and then exchanging USD for NZD, which was also inefficient.

According to an industry insider, China and New Zealand are highly complementary economies and have developed close economic and trade ties since the signing of the free trade agreement. Increasing exchanges in trade, investment and personnel have offered considerable business resources. Direct transactions between RMB and NZD will further increase the influence of RMB business in New Zealand, enhance financial cooporation, and strengthen the constantly growing economic and financial ties between the two countries.