HKEx mulls opening Renminbi futures market

Market with 1mln yuan per contract, targets to broaden acceptance of currency by international trade partners.

The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) is considering launching a yuan currency futures market, a step towards internationalising the Chinese currency, the China Business News said in a report on Friday.

HKEx has not fixed a plan for yuan futures products yet but the size of each contract will be 1 million yuan ($147,100), the newspaper cited a spokesman from the exchange as saying.

HKEx chief executive Charles Li said earlier there was a need for investment tools using the yuan CNY=CFXS to broaden the acceptance of the currency by international trade partners amid efforts to internationalise the currency, the newspaper said.

Li added that a yuan-denominated product could be traded on the HKEx as early as the end of the year or early next year.

The HKEx will further study the development of the product if most banks show strong interest, but the initial volume may not be very big, the newspaper said.

Until a few months ago, Hong Kong banks could only deposit yuan funds at the designated clearing bank.

View the full story in Reuters.