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By Tang Guhan

The Chinese currency Renminbi (RMB) is playing more and more roles in the financial world which include RMB's payments, investments, currency reserves as well as commodity pricing which had been gradually strengthened throughout 2017, as stated in the 2018 RMB Internationalization Report by the People's Bank of China.

The RMB was ranked 5th among the payment currencies and held a share of 1.66 percent in the volume of global payment currencies, according to data from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).

The report says the amount of Chinese financial assets (including RMB stocks, bonds, loans and deposits) held by overseas investors had reached 4.29 trillion yuan (620 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of 2017 with a year-on-year increase of 41.3 percent.

In detail, the balance of offshore RMB deposits exceeded 1.1 trillion yuan (160 billion U.S. dollars), according to recent statistics, the balance of RMB bonds reached 252.4 billion yuan (36.47 billion U.S. dollars), and the newly issued RMB bonds were 41.9 billion yuan (6.05 billion U.S. dollars).

In March 2018, the RMB-denominated crude oil futures were rolled out at the

Shanghai Futures Exchange for foreign investors. And in May, foreign investors were allowed to trade Dalian Iron Ore Futures.

The volume of RMB settlements for the Outward Direct Investment (ODI) transactions stood at 456.88 billion yuan (66.02 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, a decrease of 57 percent year-on-year. And the volume of RMB settlements for the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) transactions was 1.18 trillion yuan (170 billion U.S. dollars), a decrease of 16 percent year-on-year.

According to the report, the scale of the RMB cross-border settlements for service trade continued to expand, and these RMB cross-border settlements were driven by the rapid growth of securities investments. Foreign investors are more and more involved in the domestic markets, especially after the launch of the bond-connects.