The renminbi’s role in South-east Asia is moving beyond trade settlement as companies increasingly incorporate the Chinese currency into their treasury strategies, financing arrangements and capital-market activities.
Karen Ng, Standard Chartered’s head of China opening and renminbi internationalisation, said the key driver for renminbi use in South-east Asia had shifted from policy considerations towards commercial rationale. Historically, adoption was concentrated among Chinese corporates and companies operating within China-linked supply chains. Increasingly, businesses are assessing the currency according to tangible economic considerations, including reducing foreign-exchange conversion costs, lowering funding costs and matching the currencies of their trade, financing and cash flows.
The shift has been gradual but has become increasingly visible over the past two to three years. The renminbi is also being considered not simply as a potentially lower-cost funding currency but as an additional capital market as its offshore ecosystem develops. “Many issuers increasingly view renminbi capital markets as a strategic funding channel that complements their existing US dollar and Singapore dollar programmes by expanding investor diversification and enhancing long-term funding flexibility,” said Ng.
Singapore Airlines provided a recent example of this development. In June, the airline made its debut in the offshore Chinese yuan debt market with a 1.5 billion yuan (US$223.5 million), 2.38 per cent five-year “dim sum” bond. Ng said the transaction enabled the airline to broaden and diversify its investor base, demonstrating how renminbi capital markets are developing beyond a discussion focused solely on funding costs. Strong demand and oversubscription also demonstrated growing investor appetite for high-quality non-Chinese issuers in the offshore renminbi market.
Current adoption remains strongest in sectors with deep integration into China’s supply chains, including manufacturing, electronics, natural resources and commodities, energy, logistics and infrastructure. In the metals, mining and energy industries, where China remains the largest end-market, Standard Chartered is increasingly seeing multinational companies discuss expanding renminbi settlement with Chinese customers.
Ng said multinational corporates were likely to become an increasingly important source of future growth. Chinese companies often have direct access to competitive onshore renminbi funding, limiting the scope for international banks to compete purely on price. Greater opportunities instead exist among multinational companies with growing China-related revenues, procurement or investments, where regional treasury decisions are generally made outside China.
Despite China accounting for nearly one-fifth of global trade, the renminbi represented only 3.1 per cent of global payments in July 2026, according to SWIFT. The currency was the fifth-most-used in worldwide payments tracked through the network. The People’s Bank of China, meanwhile, describes the renminbi as the world’s third-largest trade finance and payments currency.
Standard Chartered’s March report, “Renminbi in motion for corporates”, identified a continuing gap between China’s economic importance and the role of its currency in global finance. For many companies, renminbi exposure already exists operationally but has not been deliberately structured. Ng said the central challenge was increasingly whether companies had natural renminbi cash flows rather than simply the cost of funding.
The commercial case is more straightforward when companies generate both renminbi revenues and expenditures. Where revenues remain denominated in US dollars but financing is in renminbi, hedging costs can offset some of the funding advantage. Adoption therefore depends on individual treasury profiles as well as operational readiness, including payment infrastructure, clearing efficiency and internal treasury policies.
The pace and form of adoption also differ across Asean. Singapore functions primarily as a regional treasury and financing hub, with multinational and regional companies centralising treasury, liquidity and foreign-exchange risk management there. Malaysia’s expanding manufacturing links with China are supporting greater renminbi use in electronics, machinery and industrial sectors, while Thailand’s automotive, electronics and tourism ties are creating further potential across procurement, financing and treasury activities.
In Indonesia, opportunities are linked to commodity exports and Chinese investment, including nickel processing, electric-vehicle battery supply chains and infrastructure development. Ng said the next phase of renminbi internationalisation was unlikely to be driven by a single financial product, but increasingly by industry ecosystems encompassing trade settlement, treasury management, working capital, liquidity management and capital markets.
