A concept photo of currencies and financial market Illustration: VCG The designation of Deutsche Bank, a key and influential bank in Europe, to serve as the yuan-clearing bank will greatly facilitate and expand the use of the yuan in the EU market, providing more impetus to broader China-EU economic and trade ties, a Chinese analyst said on Tuesday. The People's Bank of China (PBC), the central bank, announced on Monday that it had decided to authorize Deutsche Bank to serve as the yuan-clearing bank in Frankfurt, Germany, based on a memorandum of understanding with the Deutsche Bundesbank. The move came as China-EU trade and economic ties continue to deepen and bilateral trade continues to expand, despite recent restrictions imposed by the European Commission. In a statement sent to the Global Times on Monday, Deutsche Bank said that following the appointment by the PBC, it will facilitate direct end-to-end processing, clearing and settlement services for cross-border yuan transactions for European financial institutions and businesses, acting as a local bridge to China's payment systems. Deutsche Bank, a global systemically important bank as well as the world's largest euro-clearing bank, said that it is the first foreign bank in Europe to receive this designation. "Securing yuan-clearing capability in Europe reinforces our role as a trusted global clearing partner and our long-standing support for yuan internationalization. It strengthens China-Europe financial connectivity and enhances our ability to support clients' cross-border trade and investment flows with greater choice and flexibility," Alexander von zur Muehlen, CEO of Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa and Germany at Deutsche Bank, said in the statement. Xi Junyang, a professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times on Tuesday that while a number of Chinese banks are already performing yuan-clearing functions in the EU, the addition of Deutsche Bank, with its deep roots in the local market, carries great significance. "Banks have different client bases, and Deutsche Bank has many European companies as its customers. With the appointment, these market participants enjoy a far greater degree of facilitation and ease in tapping yuan use cases," said the professor. Companies and financial institutions can also avoid risks of foreign exchange losses as they can now directly choose yuan-euro settlement and bypass the use of a third currency, the expert said, noting that China-EU trade and investment ties will be one step closer with a local clearing bank coming onboard. Tian Lihui, dean of the Institute of Financial Development at Nankai University, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the latest development, some 12 years after the first-yuan clearing bank form a Chinese bank was set up in Frankfurt, marked a milestone as the yuan-clearing system in Europe has evolved from a model where "Chinese entities handle clearing for Europeans" to one where "Europeans handle yuan-clearing themselves." The decision by one of Europe's largest domestic banks to integrate into the yuan-clearing system signals that China-Europe financial cooperation is moving beyond the shallow level of facilitating trade settlements into the more substantial level of jointly building financial infrastructure, Tian said. For both China and Europe, this move represents a mutually beneficial institutional alignment, Tian said. "China gains greater depth in the offshore yuan market, while Europe secures an additional strategic option amid the contest of major currencies." Brussels has recently been intensifying its use of restrictive trade and regulatory tools across sectors ranging from clean technologies to digital infrastructure and foreign subsidies, with many of these measures seen as directly affecting Chinese firms and adding strain to China-EU economic relations. However, despite these moves, deepening industrial and supply chain integration and the strong complementarity of the two economies have continued to push bilateral trade to new highs. In the first seven months of 2026, China's total trade with the EU stood at 3.67 trillion yuan ($543.90 billion), up 9.5 percent year-on-year, data from China's General Administration of Customs showed on Friday. As China-EU economic and trade ties continue to expand and deepen, demand for the yuan to be used in the EU market will rise proportionately, and more EU banks will likely be authorized to serve as yuan-clearing banks, Xi Junyang said. Financial cooperation between the world's largest trading bloc and the largest trading nation has accelerated in recent months. In May, the PBC renewed and expanded a bilateral currency swap agreement with the National Bank of Serbia, increasing the value of the swap from 1.5 billion yuan to 5 billion yuan. Almost 80 percent of the surveyed Chinese companies operating in the EU plan to expand their investment, even amid tightening policies in the EU and an increasingly complex business environment, according to a report published by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to the EU and the China Economic Information Service in March. Fostering cooperation in emerging industries and cross-border finance have been highlighted by industry insiders as new growth drivers of China-EU trade and economic cooperation. The yuan accounted for 3.1 percent of global payments in June, rising from 2.75 percent in the previous month, and ranking as the fifth most active currency for global payments by value, according to a report from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. In terms of trade finance, the yuan ranked second with a market share of 8 percent. 。
