Yuan Daily Swaps in London Jump 240% in Year to $3.1 Billion

Trading of yuan-currency swaps from London jumped 240 percent in the first half of 2012 from a year earlier to $3.1 billion a day as the offshore market for China’s currency expands, the City of London Corp. said.

“Transaction volumes in London are growing strongly which reflects a growing confidence in London as a center of renminbi business,” Mark Boleat, policy chairman for the City of London Corp., said in an e-mailed statement today.

Daily spot foreign-exchange trading increased 150 percent to $1.7 billion year-on-year, according to the statement. Trade- related services provided by London banks such as import-export financing rose almost five-fold to 2.2 billion yuan ($350 million).

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is pushing for London to become an offshore center for yuan trading to deepen links with the world’s second-largest economy. The Bank of England is ready “in principle” for a currency-swap agreement with the People’s Bank of China, Chief Cashier Chris Salmon said Jan. 25.

Cross-border trading of yuan has expanded four-fold since August 2010 to almost 200 billion yuan in October last year, Euroclear Bank SA said in a statement last month, citing the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s figures.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lyubov Pronina in London at lpronina@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net