Swiss Banks Push for Zurich to Become Yuan Offshore Trading Hub Swiss banks are pushing for Zurich to become a center for yuan trading in Europe as China seeks to take its currency global. “Switzerland is already a hub for the renminbi, but we need to add to the infrastructure to strengthen that notion even more,” Heinrich Siegmann of the Swiss Bankers Association said at a briefing in Zurich, referring to another term for the yuan. “We have government support to becoming a hub, we have investments in renminbi bonds, and we have trading of these bonds.” Switzerland is basing its push for the offshore yuan business on the country’s close ties with China, one of the nation’s biggest trading partner. About 4 percent of Swiss exports went to China in 2012, making the country the sixth most important destination for foreign trade behind countries including Germany, the U.S., and Italy, according to the Swiss customs office. About 6 percent of Swiss imports came from China in 2012. China’s new Prime Minister Li Keqiang made the Alpine country his initial stop on his first trip to Europe as premier in May. Swiss Economy Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann is flying to Beijing today to sign an FTA tomorrow. The two countries have also entered into a memorandum of understanding on financial market dialog. “Many banks are so-called qualified domestic institutional investors in China, which allow for some privileged access to the Chinese market,” Siegmann said in Zurich today. “We still have a bit of work to do, in terms of clearing and swap lines, clearly that would be an element that would be nice to add to Switzerland as a hub.”
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 09:00:50 +0000