# China National Clearing Center

The China National Clearing Center (CNCC, Chinese: 中国人民银行清算总中心, lit. 'People's Bank of China Clearing Center') is a non-profit public institution administered by the People's Bank of China and created in May 1990.$^{:22}$ It runs several of China's key payment systems.$^{:15}$
Specifically, the CNCC operates the China National Advanced Payment System (CNAPS, Chinese: 中國現代化支付系統),$^{:34}$ a payment system with two main applications: the High-Value Payment System (HVPS, Chinese: 大额支付系统), a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system comparable to Fedwire in the United States or T2 in the euro area; and the Bulk Electronic Payment System (BEPS, Chinese: 小额支付系统), a retail payment system. The CNCC also operates China's Check Imaging System (CIS),$^{:13}$ the Internet Banking Payment System (IBPS, Chinese: 网上支付跨行清算), and the China Foreign Exchange Payment System (CFXPS, Chinese: 境内外币支付系统), another RTGS system that specializes in domestic transactions in foreign currencies, previously known in English as China Domestic Foreign Currency Payment System (CDFCPS or FCPS).$^{:26}$
The CNCC operates infrastructures for domestic payments, whether denominated in renminbi (RMB) or in foreign currencies. It thus complements other payments infrastructures that handle foreign exchange and offshore RMB payments, including China UnionPay, CFETS and CIPS; and those that support China's securities and derivatives markets, including CSDC, CCDC and the Shanghai Clearing House.

## High-Value Payment System

As China's domestic RTGS system launched in June 2005, the HVPS has been described as "the backbone of the national payments system in China".$^{:4}$ In 2009, the HVPS processed 247 million transactions amounting to RMB760 trillion.$^{:9}$ In 2023, these numbers had grown to 382 million transactions and turnover of RMB8,481 trillion.$^{:6}$
By the end of 2010, the HVPS had 1,729 direct participants and 100,510 indirect participants.$^{:42}$ Bank of China (Hong Kong) and Bank of China (Macau) [zh] were direct participants of HVPS and are its clearing agents in Hong Kong and Macau respectively.$^{:43}$ By end-2016, the number of direct participants had shrunk to 305, but that of indirect participants had grown to 141,023.$^{:27}$

## Bulk Electronic Payment System

The BEPS, launched in June 2006, is a retail payment system which is embedded into the HVPS.$^{:9}$ It is based on real-time netting and settlement at regular times during the day.$^{:33}$ In 2009, it processed 226 million transactions amounting to RMB11 trillion.$^{:11}$ By 2023, these numbers had grown to 4.6 billion transactions and RMB186 trillion.$^{:6}$
By end-2010, BEPS had 1,730 direct participants and 100,510 indirect participants, almost exactly overlapping with HVPS with which it shares the CNAPS platform.$^{:44-45}$

## Internet Banking Payment System

IBPS started operations in August 2010 and mainly handles instant payment transactions via the internet.$^{:46}$ It is a deferred net settlement (DNS) system.$^{:8}$ By end-July 2020, it has 218 direct participants and 175 proxy-access participants.$^{:14}$ In 2023, it processed 17 billion transactions amounting to RMB301 trillion.$^{:6}$

## China Domestic Foreign Currency Payment System / China Foreign Exchange Payment System

The CDFCPS, sometimes abbreviated as FCPS, was created in 2008 by the People's Bank of China as a dedicated RTGS system to handle domestic transactions that are entirely denominated in foreign currencies.$^{:5}$ As of the early 2010s, it handled payments in Australian dollar (AUD), Canadian dollar (CAD), Swiss franc (CHF), euro (EUR), Pound sterling (GBP), Hong Kong dollar (HKD), Japanese yen (JPY), and US dollar (USD). By then, four commercial banks were designated as the system's proxy settlement banks, namely Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.$^{:13}$ A that time, the overwhelming majority of CDFCPS-settled transactions were in US dollar.$^{:14}$ The CDFCPS had 31 participants at the end of 2010.$^{:49}$ Its Chinese name's transcription in English was changed from CDFCPS to CFXPS in the early 2020s.$^{:5}$
Domestic foreign-exchange (FX) transactions involving the RMB, by contrast, are not settled on CFXPS but can use the China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) as clearing house, which in turn uses the HVPS to settle the transactions' RMB legs.$^{:13-15}$ Thus, by the early 2010s the CFETS handled most domestic FX transactions.$^{:21}$ In 2023, CFXPS processed 5 million transactions amounting to USD2.6 trillion (RMB19 trillion).$^{:6-7}$

## Check Imaging System

Launched in June 2007, the CNCC's Check Imaging System enables electronic exchange of check images and multilateral net settlement of the corresponding exchange instruments at the HVPS.$^{:33}$