China's state-owned currency marketplace is preparing to open branches in London and New York as part of efforts to promote the yuan's global status.
The China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS), a subsidiary of China's central bank, said in a statement that by expanding its network offshore, it aims to serve more overseas institutions and become a facilitator for the yuan globally.
China has been gradually loosening its capital controls to allow more foreign participation in its onshore yuan market. Beijing is also fostering offshore yuan centers to promote international use of the Chinese currency.
CFETS provides an electronic bidding system for the yuan against foreign currencies. It also offers cross-rate trading, as well as RMB interbank lending and bond trading. Yuan-based trading on CFETS totaled 618.12 trillion yuan ($94.24 trillion U.S.) in 2015.
The CFETS said that it would further strengthen cooperation with overseas trading platforms, and aim eventually to provide trading services 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The market platform extended its trading hours for China's onshore yuan this year to end trading at 11:30 p.m. local time from 4:30 p.m. previously.
