London's RMB business expands rapidly in H1 2014

LONDON -- London saw a rapid growth of its foreign exchange activity in the renminbi, or RMB, products in the first half of 2014, along with the RMB deposit reported its record high, said the City of London Monday.

But the total trade financing amount declined slightly on year- on-year basis, said the City of London.

The renminbi denominated trade financing in London increased by 79 percent to around 26.5 billion yuan ($4.3 billion) in the first half of 2014, compared to the second half of 2013.

But it was lowered than the 27.9 billion yuan in the same period of 2013, said the city in a report entrusted to and authored by Bourse Consult.

Export financing was 7.3 billion yuan in H1 2014, slightly lower than the 7.5 billion yuan in H2 2013. Import financing increased dramatically from 6.5 billion yuan in H2 2013 to 18.4 billion in H1 2014, while letters of credit dwindled from 876 million yuan to 807 million yuan over the same period, figures showed.

Overall foreign exchange (FX) activity in RMB products, however, increased very rapidly in H1 2014 when compared to the H1 2013, with total deliverable products climbed from $15.6 billion to $42.4 billion, and non-deliverable products expanded from $6.8 billion to $12.2 billion, data showed.

Specifically, deliverable products of spot FX, forwards, FX swaps and FX options all increased substantially over the same period. While non-deliverable products, which includes forwards, FX swaps and FX options, also grew rapidly.

Total RMB deposits in London at the end of June 2014 reached a new high of 25.4 billion yuan, surpassing by 74 percent the 14.6 billion yuan recorded at the end of 2013, data also showed.