us trading times. the new enterprise is based in frankfurt. the german - chinese exchange will operate using the established and globally available infrastructure of the deutsche borse group. the three joint venture partners intentionally chose frankfurt as the financial platform from which to offer their service in a european regulatory environment and in the european and american time zones. the money flows resulting from securities settlement are to be channelled through the clearing infrastructure provided in frankfurt. in my view, china ’ s real economic development and the launch of the china europe international exchange will give rise to additional volumes of rmb payments. the german banking industry will decide which channels shall be used to clear rmb payments. nevertheless, i would wish that the german banking community will support the german financial market to become an rmb hub. this could be done by processing rmb transactions via the rmb clearing bank in frankfurt. potential prospects the bundesbank operates the target2 system together with the french and italian central banks, while the eurosystem is currently looking at strategically enhancing its market infrastructures. for example the eurosystem discusses to offer multicurrency services in a future target2 system. for such a new service the renminbi and its processing would be a candidate. a connection on infrastructure level between the chinese payments traffic and an enhanced target2 system – we can call it target3 – would also an option. however this will only be possible, if both systems use a harmonised iso 20022 standard. this is not yet the case today. all in all the surrounding will remain interesting and exciting. many new ideas and visions can still be developed. bis central bankers ’ speeches

designated the frankfurt branch of the bank of china as the official rmb clearing bank for frankfurt and germany in june of last year. four offshore rmb clearing banks have been named in europe ( in frankfurt, london, paris and luxembourg ) by the people ’ s bank of china, the chinese central bank. there are now 14 clearing banks globally. new developments in the rmb clearing infrastructure with the introduction of the new china international payment system ( cips ), china has taken another major step in forging ahead with the internationalisation of the rmb. the chinese central bank commenced operation of cips a little over a month ago. it was co - developed by 19 banks, including eight foreign institutions, such as deutsche bank, hongkong and shanghai bank ( hsbc ) and citibank. these are now the first banks to be directly connected – albeit via their branches in mainland china – to cips. in a second step, foreign banks are to be enabled to participate directly from outside china. this will include the offshore rmb clearing banks. bis central bankers ’ speeches cips is designed to provide an infrastructural buffer for the expected growth in rmb transactions. cips processes offshore rmb payments only. at a political level, cips will foster integration in the international clearing system, cut down the drawbacks in clearing efficiency with respect to other currencies ( especially usd ) and promote the use of rmb in global trade. cips is generally viewed as a measure flanking the rmb ’ s advancement into a global reserve currency, as manifested by the aim of being included in the basket of special drawing rights. on the whole, the relationship between china and germany has developed very positively also beyond the economic cooperation. the foundation of the sino - german centre of finance and economics about two months ago in peking, a german chinese scientific research institute, is an obvious demonstration of the further growing cooperation. i am of the opinion that such cooperation is very useful in the restructuring phase of the chinese economy. and another key milestone in the german chinese cooperation is approaching. in just two days, the first official trading platform for chinese investment products denominated in rmb outside the people ’ s republic of china will go into operation. the deutsche borse group, the shanghai stock exchange and the china financial futures exchange made an announcement this may about their joint venture to set up the china europe international exchange. the new exchange grants investors access to the chinese capital market during european and