1. Standard Chartered executives said the yuan is playing a growing role in cross-border trade and financing, but its global footprint remains limited, leaving substantial room to expand as Chinese companies deepen overseas operations [para. 1]. Jean Lu, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank (China), said China's weight in global trade and manufacturing remains far larger than the international role of its currency [para. 2]. She cited a developing ecosystem of market participants, regulatory support, and payment infrastructure—including Cross-border e-CNY Transfer Services, the Cross-border Interbank Payment System, and the mBridge central bank digital currency project—that could help the yuan catch up [para. 3].
2. Beijing is stepping up its yearslong effort to internationalize the yuan. In the first seven months of 2026, cross-border receipts and payments in yuan exceeded 50 trillion yuan ($7.5 trillion), including more than 9 trillion yuan in goods trade, according to PBOC Deputy Governor Lu Lei [para. 4]. Yuan transactions accounted for about 30% of China's cross-border goods-trade payments, a record high [para. 4].
3. Low Chinese interest rates are making the yuan more attractive for financing, while growing Chinese investment abroad is creating more opportunities to use the currency for capital injections and other investments [para. 5]. Lu cited a Chinese materials and minerals company investing in Indonesia that used yuan directly for its subsidiary rather than converting to U.S. dollars or rupiah beforehand [para. 6]. She called this "RMB internationalization phase two," describing the expansion from settlement toward financing and investment [para. 7].
4. A Bank of China survey of nearly 2,500 Chinese companies, more than 1,000 overseas companies, and over 100 overseas banks found broader acceptance of the yuan: about 62% of Chinese firms said their overseas trading partners were relatively or fully willing to accept yuan-denominated settlement in 2025, up 4.9 percentage points [para. 8]. Among overseas non-Chinese companies, 46.4% said interest rates were the main factor attracting them to yuan financing [para. 9].
5. However, yuan trade and investment remain sensitive to exchange rates and the needs of individual projects. Only 22.2% of Chinese companies investing abroad said at least half of their direct investment was funded in yuan in 2025, down 4.9 percentage points from a year earlier [para. 10].
6. In Southeast Asia, Patrick Lee, Standard Chartered's CEO for Singapore, ASEAN, and South Asia, said the bank is seeing more yuan use as trade with China grows, including for commodities, manufacturing, and working-capital needs [para. 12]. He described growth as good but from a very low base, calling the yuan "probably the fastest growing currency outside the U.S. dollar for trade adoption" [para. 13]. Cross-border yuan settlement between China and ASEAN reached 8.9 trillion yuan in 2024, up 50.7% from a year earlier and more than double the 2020 level [para. 14]. Yuan settlement linked to direct investment rose 33.6% to 900 billion yuan that year [para. 14].
7. Companies in the region are increasingly turning to yuan-denominated bonds to take advantage of relatively low rates; Standard Chartered has helped Singapore companies including Temasek Holdings, Singapore Airlines, and PSA Corp. issue offshore yuan bonds [para. 15].
8. China is also trying to make it easier for foreign companies and investors to hold and use the currency rather than simply receive it [para. 17]. Foreign institutions hold more than 11 trillion yuan of onshore yuan-denominated financial assets, while central banks in more than 80 countries and regions include the yuan in their reserves [para. 18]. Major offshore markets hold about 1.8 trillion yuan in deposits, more than 1.2 trillion yuan in loans, and 2.5 trillion yuan in bonds [para. 18].
9. Beijing has deepened the pool of assets available to yuan investors: Panda bond sales surged 69% in the first half of 2026 to more than 160 billion yuan, bringing cumulative issuance to more than 1.3 trillion yuan [para. 19]. In January, Standard Chartered supported German company Henkel AG in issuing a 1.5 billion yuan three-year Panda bond in China's interbank bond market [para. 20].
10. Further internationalization will require deeper offshore yuan liquidity, more yuan-denominated assets, and a broader range of tools for hedging currency and interest-rate risks [para. 21]. Lu pointed to plans to deepen Hong Kong's offshore yuan market, develop tools including repos and hedging products, and strengthen links with the onshore financial system [para. 22].
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