China will introduce a series of measures to deepen the development of the offshore renminbi market by enhancing liquidity, expanding the supply of RMB-denominated assets and strengthening connectivity with onshore markets.
The People's Bank of China, the nation's central bank, will continue to optimize relevant institutional arrangements, covering short, medium and long-term maturities, to provide stable and multitiered RMB — also called the yuan — liquidity support to the offshore market, said Xie Guangqi, director-general of the Monetary Policy Department of the PBOC.
Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Xie said the PBOC will guide the China Foreign Exchange Trade System to collaborate with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission to build a comprehensive financial trading platform that provides infrastructure services for trading in financial markets, including bonds, currencies and foreign exchange.
On July 7, the PBOC, the HKMA and the SFC jointly announced new measures to promote the offshore RMB (CNH) market's development in Hong Kong.
"This coordinated effort represents the most significant policy push to date to reinforce Hong Kong's role as the preeminent offshore hub for renminbi," said Xiong Yi, chief economist for China at Deutsche Bank, in a report.
While the PBOC and the HKMA jointly introduced measures to deepen mainland-Hong Kong financial cooperation in early 2024 and 2025, the latest policy package is significantly more forceful and places a much stronger emphasis on developing the offshore RMB market, Xiong said.
The new measures reaffirm that the offshore RMB market is a long-term pillar of the currency's internationalization rather than a stopgap solution, he said. "We believe the CNH market is now on track to overcome its size and liquidity constraints, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of growth."
The Chinese yuan has strengthened over the past six to nine months, supported by China's export strength and sustained foreign trade-related capital inflows, Xiong said.
He added that the currency has also remained notably stable in terms of both exchange and interest rates despite heightened global market volatility triggered by Middle East tensions. That resilience has made the RMB increasingly attractive to foreign companies looking to diversify away from the US dollar and other major currencies, given its stability and reliable access to financing.
"Renminbi internationalization is seeing another acceleration, starting from this year. I expect that the use of renminbi broadly in payment, financing and investment will increase over the next five to 10 years, and the Chinese currency is on the rise to become another major reserve currency alongside the dollar, euro and yen," Xiong added.
In December, the RMB's share as a global currency in the trade finance market was 8.3 percent, up 2.32 percent year-on-year, according to SWIFT.
Last year, RMB clearing activity in London, the largest RMB clearing hub outside of Asia, strengthened significantly. Total cumulative clearing volume reached 48.15 trillion yuan ($7.11 trillion), and the average daily clearing volume increased 55.33 percent to 191.09 billion yuan. China-UK RMB cross-border settlement also expanded modestly to 3.8 trillion yuan, generating a net inflow of 91.8 billion yuan into the United Kingdom, said the 19th edition of the London RMB Business Report.
Designated as the first RMB clearing bank for the UK in 2014, China Construction Bank Corp London Branch had achieved cumulative clearing volumes exceeding 174 trillion yuan as of the end of 2025, said the report.