Swift has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with China International Payment Service Corp., (CIPS Co.). The MOU sets out plans for a strategic collaboration to develop China’s Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) using Swift as the secure, efficient and reliable channel to connect CIPS with SWIFT’s global user community.
SWIFT Chief Executive of Asia Pacific and EMEA, Alain Raes and CIPS Executive Director, Li Wei signed the MOU in Beijing on 25th March 2016.
“China International Payment Service Corp. is looking forward to benefitting from SWIFT’s platform and services to provide an efficient and convenient channel to the global financial community. We aim to provide an inclusive platform to capture cross-border RMB flows to all types of participants which will significantly extend the reach of RMB internationalisation”, Li said.
Raes said, “SWIFT is a global messaging provider supporting more than 150 payment and settlement systems, and CIPS is a payment system. There are natural synergies between global financial messaging services, such those provided by SWIFT, and payment systems. Working with such market infrastructures is at the heart of our business”.
SWIFT is a member-owned cooperative with more than 11,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries. To attain RMB internationalisation worldwide requires the global reach and connectedness of a network such as SWIFT’s. To date, 1,700 financial institutions have made RMB transactions using the SWIFT network. SWIFT has operated in China for over 30 years and nearly 400 Chinese financial institutions and corporations are connected to SWIFT today.