Leading portfolio of financial crime compliance services SWIFT’s RMB Tracker showed that the value in weight of the RMB used for payments exchanged with China and Hong Kong within Asia Pacific increased 327 per cent between April 2012 and April 2015.

During the three-year period, the Chinese currency moved from the fifth position to the top currency used in Asia Pacific to do business with Greater China, said a statement.

About 31 per cent of payments on average in Asia Pacific with China and Hong are now made in RMB, up from seven per cent in April 2012, it said.

This growth was driven by the increase of RMB usage in most Asian countries to trade directly with China and Hong Kong.

Most Asian countries moved from being low users (under 10 per cent RMB) to medium users (between 10 per cent and 50 per cent).

Out of 26 countries, within the region and using the RMB for direct payments with China and Hong Kong, only nine are considered low users compared to 19 in 2012.

Michael Moon, head of payments - Asia Pacific at SWIFT, said: “Asia Pacific is clearly paving the way forward when it comes to RMB adoption. Big trading partners like Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea have adopted the RMB for the majority of their payments with Greater China.

“The new appointments of four clearing centres (South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia) within the region should also have a positive impact on RMB adoption, solidifying the important role of the currency within Asia Pacific and abroad.”

Overall, the RMB remains in its position as the fifth most active currency for global payments and accounted for 2.07 per cent of payments worldwide, said the statement.

Its activity share is higher than last month even though RMB payments decreased in value by 6.7 per cent compared to April 2015, while at a global level, all currencies decreased in value by 8.2 per cent over the same period. - TradeArabia News Service