- Standard Bank enabled direct yuan settlements with China in June 2025, cutting settlement times from days to seven seconds and lowering costs by 98%.
- CIPS processed about 175.49 trillion yuan (≈ $24.47 trillion) in 2024 and expanded to 1,690 participants across 121 countries by June 2025.
- Chinese investment in African mining rose nearly 400% year-over-year in H1 2025, linking commodity supply chains to yuan settlements.
- Central banks and African institutions moved reserves and Gold holdings away from the U.S. system as part of broader de-dollarization trends.
Standard Bank in June 2025 began direct yuan settlements with China, shortening payment times from days to seven seconds and reducing costs by 98%. The move used CIPS, China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, and extended yuan access to mining firms and central banks in 21 African countries. This step is part of a wider shift away from dollar-based trade and settlement.
CIPS processed about 175.49 trillion yuan in 2024 (≈ $24.47 trillion), up 42.6% year-over-year. The network had 1,690 participants across 121 countries by June 2025. CIPS is a payment infrastructure for cross-border yuan clearing and settlement.
Chinese Belt and Road investment secured mining contracts and transport links across Africa. Chinese investment in African mining rose almost 400% in the first half of 2025 from the prior year. These links allow commodity trade to settle in yuan without U.S. dollar involvement.
BRICS and other partners expanded bilateral local-currency trade. Trade between China and Russia has been settled in local currencies for three years and covers about 95% of their trade volume. Roberto Campos Neto stated, “Yuan settlements are a credible alternative to the dollar, especially for bilateral trade with China.”
Central banks shifted reserve patterns and physical assets. Nigeria withdrew gold deposits from American banks, and Ghana increased its gold holdings by 35% in one year. The share of global reserves held in dollars fell below 47% compared with about 65% twenty years ago.
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) noted industry frictions in cross-border financial flows and stated, “While merchandise trade has advanced rapidly, the same cannot be said for financial flows, which remain hampered by cross-border frictions, high settlement costs, and complex processes that limit the full potential of this vital economic partnership.”
Technical term definitions:
– CIPS: Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, China’s network for clearing and settling yuan payments.
– BRICS: A group of major emerging economies cooperating on trade, finance, and policy.
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