Contracts signed with 11 foreign banks, further expansion of CIPS

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 8, the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) held the second CIPS Cross-Border Bank-Enterprise Cooperation Special Event in Xiamen, signing direct participant agreements with 11 foreign banks on site, with 4 overseas banks and 14 domestic banks officially going live as direct participants. For the first time, foreign financial institutions from six countries—Rwanda, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Maldives, Malaysia, and Georgia—have connected to CIPS as direct participants.

The newly signed and launched participants were added during the China International Fair for Investment and Trade. According to previously released data from the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, as of the end of August 2026, CIPS had a total of 1,853 participants, including 211 direct participants and 1,642 indirect participants; nearly 5,300 corporate banking institutions from 192 countries and regions had processed cross-border payment transactions through CIPS. Following this event, the distribution of CIPS participants has expanded to 133 countries and regions globally, with business coverage spanning 192 countries and regions.

Direct participants open accounts with CIPS and obtain CIPS bank codes, enabling them to conduct business directly through the system; indirect participants, on the other hand, do not open accounts with CIPS and instead entrust direct participants to handle relevant transactions. Current CIPS rules also require that overseas banks that have not joined the People's Bank of China's High-Value Payment System and have not opened clearing accounts with the People's Bank of China must select a fund custodian bank to handle account funding and related liquidity management services when applying to become direct participants.

During the event, the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System also launched the CIPS cross-border guarantee product and simultaneously advanced cooperation in cross-border RMB network payment clearing and China-UK over-the-counter bond businesses. The 2026 message standard release plan previously announced by CIPS has incorporated cross-border guarantees into the supporting message scope of the cross-border integrated information service platform, covering functions such as business reporting, integrated collection, and account reporting. The relevant messages are scheduled for phased release, with some functions already in trial operation.