Standard Chartered launches Global Renminbi Index which tracks Renminbi-based business activity worl
by Kylene Casanova
Standard Chartered today announced the launch of the Standard Chartered Renminbi Globalisation Index (RGI) – the first industry benchmark that effectively tracks the progress of Renminbi-based business activity worldwide. Scheduled for release on a monthly basis, the Index offers corporates and investors a quantifiable view of the latest trends, size and levels of offshore activity that are driving the adoption of the Renminbi (RMB) as an international reserve currency.
To complement the Index, Standard Chartered announced the results of its first quarterly Offshore Renminbi Corporate Survey, wherein companies across Asia and Europe shared their motivations and expressed a strong appetite for using RMB offshore in the next six months. In the future, the survey will provide a qualitative indicator to forecast the direction of the market.
The Index covers three markets which dominate the offshore RMB business: Hong Kong, London, and Singapore. It measures business growth in four key areas: deposits (denoting store of wealth), Dim Sum bonds and Certificate of Deposits (as vehicles for capital raising), trade settlement and other international payments (unit of international commerce) and foreign exchange (unit of exchange). As RMB internationalises, there is capacity to include additional parameters and markets, aligning the Index with future development.
The Index works by sourcing data from several industry and official sources and leading providers of market data. It started from December 2010, the point from which sufficient meaningful information became available to produce a reliable measure. The RGI shows that between December 2010 and September 2012 the internationalisation of the RMB saw a 7-fold increase. All four parameters and the emergence of new markets contributed to the impressive growth, with trade-settlement and other international payments being the key driving force behind the increase.
Current position
The Index shows that Hong Kong dominates the offshore RMB business, with a four-fifth share, while Singapore and London are emerging as the upcoming centres, each taking up a tenth of the market. Taipei and New York are expected to join this club in the coming years.
The Index's surge over the past two years reveals the momentum behind the international adoption of the Chinese currency, despite the global recession. Although RMB deposits were the initial drivers, the other three components have emerged as key engines of growth of the RMB offshore market, with wider geographical use providing an additional incentive. This is reflected in the survey results where a majority of the respondents currently using the offshore RMB plan to use one or more of the other RMB products in the next six months.
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