UK banks push for London as next yuan trading hub

Barclays (BCS.NYSE, BARC.LON), Deutsche Bank (DB.NYSE, DBR.FRA, ETR), HSBC Holdings (HBC.NYSE, 0005.HKG, HSBA.LON) and Standard Chartered (2888.HKG, STAN.LON) have joined Bank of China (601988.SH, 3988.HKG) in a push to make London the next trading hub for yuan trade and investment, Bloomberg reported. “London is perfectly positioned to act as the [yuan’s] western hub,” said Staurt Fraser, the head of London’s initiative’s steering committee. A separate report said HSBC had begun marketing a potential renminbi-denominated (or “dim sum”) bond that would be listed in London. The bank held conference calls with investors in Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK on Tuesday to gauge their interest in such a deal, according to an unnamed source. The majority of dim sum bonds outside of mainland China are so far confined to Hong Kong; that market tripled in size to US$16.8 billion last year after being set up in mid-2010.