Standard Chartered is beefing up its renminbi services by setting up a global trading team for the Chinese currency.
The team will be led by Charles Feng, global head of RMB trading, who will also remain as regional head of FX, rates & crediting trading for Northeast Asia.
It will focus on providing clients with pricing, financial market product solutions and will work together with the bank’s existing RMB and client coverage team.
The global RMB trading team comprises traders in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, London and New York. Feng is based in Hong Kong and reports to Nitin Gulabani, global head of FX, rates & credit.
StanChart’s move comes at a time when China’s currency is gaining in popularity globally, and investors are keen on various investments and hedging opportunities using the currency.
For example, StanChart China signed a Rmb100 million one-year interest rate swap with HSBC Bank (China) on the new loan prime rate (LPR), a benchmark loan rate introduced by the People’s Bank of China.
Last week, the bank signed a LPR agreement with a large local Chinese bank to help it hedge its long exposure.
Meanwhile, many companies have begun to settle their Chinese transactions in renminbi. In October, US bank Citi issued Latin America's first-ever renminbi letter of credit to broaden that trend further.
In August, StanChart launched a RMB solutions team in client coverage with team members in Hong Kong, London and New York to advise on opportunities arising from the currency’s internationalisation.
The bank earlier also assigned various roles for its RMB business, including a CNH products head with a focus on capital raising and offshore financial markets solutions, and a RMB products head for transaction banking with a focus on cash and trade solutions.
