Friday, December 2, 2011

China adds AUD and CAD trading against CNY

On Nov 28th, China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) issued a statement saying that it will now allow interbank trading of AUD and CAD against CNY, joining the ranks of USD, JPY, EUR, GBP, MYR, RUB, and HKD.

This is a good sign but China must move a bit faster than this if they ever want to be taken seriously as a candidate for an international trade currency (if that is even possible).

Notwithstanding the opaqueness of China’s banking and political system.   At this point, options on CNY currency pairs can only be brought but not sold, so even simple strategies such as a synthetic forward or a risk reversal are still not possible.  With these strict restrictions, interbank trade volume is still minimal.  Banks would much rather focus their business that has more flexibility and can actually attract some interests.

Dipping your foot into the pool is fine, but no one will ever learn how to swim until he gets his head under the water.

CFETS should take a little bit of a risk and actually let the market start providing some better liquidity and transparency. 

No comments:

Post a Comment