CfC Stanbic to trade Yuan as it eyes increased Chinese business

CfC Stanbic Bank has unveiled trading of the Chinese Yuan at its branches facilitate trade between Kenyan and Chinese businesses.

The move comes as the bank positions itself to benefit from the increased flow of the Chinese currency following closer trade ties between Kenya and china.

Speaking during the launch, CfC Stanbic Chief Executive Officer Phillip Odera said as the level of Chinese investments continues to rise, there was need to facilitate settling of Yuan based transactions.

The bank also plans to take advantage of the fact that most traders experience currency losses after being forced to convert money into other currencies to get the yuan.

“The reason we wanted to this is because you always lose on the exchange rate because you have to go through different currencies. So what we wanted to do is eliminate that,” Mr Odera said.

CfC has partnered with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to facilitate Yuan based transactions. The bank is a member of the Standard Bank Group which is partly owned by China’s ICBC, the world’s largest bank by assets.

Local exporters to China usually have payments processed through a lengthy process that involves physically sending Chinese payment cheques back to the country for clearance and payment.

During his visit to China in 2013, President Uhuru Kenyatta said the government would be ready to host the Yaun clearance house in Nairobi with an eye on the booming trade between the two countries.

With a clearing house traders could speed up payments and lower the cost trade.

CfC Stanbic Bank plans to expand its services to reach business banking and private-owned Chinese companies operating in Kenya.