SINGAPORE (Oct 8): The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Singapore says on Thursday that it has cleared a record volume of RMB35 million ($7.9 million) on the Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), China's long-awaited international payment system.

The volume cleared represents a trade settlement payment from Singapore's Raffemet Pte Ltd to Baosteel Resources in Shanghai. The transaction cleared by ICBC  marks the first in Asia to be cleared through the newly launched CIPS, which will process a broad range of cross-border RMB transactions, including settlement of RMB trade and capital projects, as well as settlement of remittance transactions.

CIPS allows greater access and transparency for foreign banks in China,  enabling them to have direct access to China's onshore liquidity pool for offshore RMB transactions. It  is a major step in the internationalisation of the RMB and improves the Chinese financial sector’s ability to conduct international RMB transactions. 

As the first bank with a global RMB clearing network across Asia, the Americas and Europe, ICBC is part of a pioneer batch of participating banks in CIPS. The bank currently offers RMB clearing and liquidity support to 104 institutional banking accounts across the world through key RMB services, including RMB exchanges, forwards and swaps, money market financing, and intraday overdrafts.

As the sole RMB clearing bank of Singapore, ICBC Singapore says it recorded a clearing volume of RMB47.1 trillion in the first three quarters of 2015, up nearly 97.1% from a year earlier.