BEIJING, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The second phase of the Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) was fully put into operation on Wednesday, with its operating time fully covering the global financial markets in various time zones to meet needs of the users for RMB services.
CIPS is a payment and settlement system created by the People's Bank of China (PBOC), China's central bank, to provide safe, easy and efficient settlement services for global financial institutions in doing RMB cross-border and offshore business.
On the basis of successful trial run on March 26, the PBOC accelerated construction of the second phase of the CIPS to further improve the clearing and settlement efficiency of RMB cross-border funds.
Compared to first phase of the CIPS, the second phase has improved its features, including the extension of the operating time from 5 x 12 hours to 5 x 24 hours + 4 hours, and the expansion of the types of direct participants.
In the aspect of preventing system settlement risks, an entry and exit mechanism for the CIPS direct participants was introduced to to ensure that only institutions with good liquidity management capabilities can join the system and carry out corresponding businesses, according to relevant official of the PBOC.
As of the end of March 2018, CIPS had a total of 31 domestic and foreign direct participants and 695 indirect domestic and foreign participants, with the services extending to 148 countries and regions.
In the future, CIPS will continue to upgrade and improve in accordance with market demand and the requirements for the development of RMB internationalization, persistently enhance service levels, provide important guarantees and support for the global use of RMB, and actively support cross-border interconnection and interflow of financial markets, the relevant PBOC official added. (Edited by Hu Pingchao, hupingchao@xinhua.org)
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