The Offshore RMB Trading Forum organized by the CAFE UK was held at Nabarro Law Firm on February 5, 2013. Li Hui, Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in the UK, was invited to attend the forum. More than 100 people, including senior executives from major banks in Europe, America and Asia, elites from the financial industry and related industries in China and the UK, leaders of overseas Chinese communities in the UK and outstanding students from business schools, attended the forum. Keynote speakers included Matthew Cowie, Director of Global Markets Department of Financial Supervision and Markets Department of the UK Treasury, Simon Nicholson, Head of International Trade of Barclays Bank, Steven Haydon, Head of Global Financial Markets Department of Bank of China in London, Norman Hui, Head of Central Sales Department of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Professor Frank Mao, Senior Advisor of Llloyds Bank.
Ms. Xue Wei, Vice President of CAFE UK, gave a wonderful opening speech and presided over the conference. Alasdair Steele, partner of Nabarro, as the co-organizer, gave a speech first. He believed that the RMB will occupy more and more international markets. Dr. Wang Changnan, President of CAFE UK and Managing Director of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, gave a welcome speech and introduced the CAFE UK. He said that more similar professional forums or lectures will be held in the future to further strengthen the exchanges and cooperation between professionals in the financial industry and make contributions to the financial circles of China and the UK.
In his speech, Li Hui, Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in the UK, fully affirmed the achievements of the British Chinese Financiers Association in the past year. He said that he had participated in many activities of the British Chinese Financiers Association and felt that it was a very professional, cohesive and well-organized association. The members were not only good at learning, but also very supportive of public welfare activities and made contributions to society. Li Hui's humorous speech on the RMB attracted laughter and applause from time to time.
The first keynote speaker was Matthew Cowie from the UK Treasury. In his speech, he shared in detail the data and analysis of several RMB forums he participated in, and looked forward to the prospects of RMB as a world currency. Simon Nicholson from Barclays Bank expressed his views on the development of China's foreign trade based on his personal experience. He said that 23% of companies in the UK want to do business with China, which is a huge business opportunity.
Then Norman Hui of Bank of America Merrill Lynch hosted the discussion, and Steven Haydon of Bank of China and Professor Frank Mao of Llloyds Bank expressed their opinions respectively. They expressed their views on the offshore RMB trading market, introduced how to invest in China and "Dim Sum Bonds", introduced the history of the formation of the global RMB market, and explained the development of RMB business in Hong Kong, Singapore and London with a lot of data and charts. London is the only offshore RMB trading center in developed areas of Europe and America. With the rapid development of China's economy, the internationalization of RMB has been increasing, and some countries have gradually used RMB as their foreign exchange reserves. Although London has only been an offshore RMB trading center for 1-2 years, its business has developed rapidly and has accounted for one-third of Hong Kong's total. As London becomes a RMB settlement center, it is foreseeable that it will become the world's largest offshore RMB trading center alongside Hong Kong in the future. Everyone continued to exchange enthusiastically during the subsequent cocktail party, and the discussion ended successfully with reluctance to leave.
Comments