Brazil To Connect With China's International Payment System To Trade In Regional Currency

By: Asia Business Outlook Team | Saturday, 01 April 2023

A Rio-based Chinese bank will be connected to China’s cross-border interbank payment System (CIPS), an alternative to SWIFT, to support trade settlements between China and Brazil in renminbi.

Banco BOCOM BBM, a subsidiary of the Bank of Communications, China’s fifth largest bank, will be linked to CIPS to reduce the costs of commercial transactions with the direct exchange between Brazilian real and Chinese yuan, according to a statement released by the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil).

The bank will become the first direct participant in the CIPS in South America while the Brazilian branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China will become the renminbi clearing bank in Brazil, said ApexBrasil.

The announcement came after China and Brazil reportedly struck a deal to allow companies to settle their trade transactions in the two countries’ own currencies, ditching the United States dollar as an intermediary.

In early February, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and the Brazilian central bank signed a memorandum of cooperation to establish renminbi clearing arrangements in Brazil.

“These arrangements will help enterprises and financial institutions in both countries conduct cross-border transactions using the renminbi,” Mao Ning, a spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry, said Thursday. “They will also further facilitate bilateral trade and investment.”

Last year, Sino-Brazil bilateral trade rose 4.9% year-on-year to US$171.49 billion, according to the Chinese government. China’s exports to Brazil, including machines, computers, steel, textiles and autos, surged 15.7% to US$61.97 billion. China’s imports from Brazil, including iron ore, soybeans, crude oil and paper pulp, fell 0.4% to US$109.52 billion.