carl - ludwig thiele : rmb initiative – one year after start of clearing speech by mr carl - ludwig thiele, member of the executive board of the deutsche bundesbank, at the european - chinese banking day during the 18th euro finance week, frankfurt am main, 16 november 2015. * * * ladies and gentlemen i am delighted to be speaking about such an interesting topic at this year ’ s europeanchinese banking day. at last year ’ s china day, we celebrated the first rmb transactions processed by the rmb clearing bank in frankfurt. so how do things stand now, one year on, with regard to the development of the rmb and the clearing of rmb transactions? development of the rmb hub in frankfurt china has been experiencing an enormous economic upturn since the end of the 1970s, and has now become the second - largest economy in the world. in just one generation, therefore, china has made the quantum leap from donkey carts to high - speed transrapid trains. the importance of the chinese economy to the world economy is growing visibly. six years ago, its share in global gross domestic product was roughly 9 % ; this year, it looks set to hit 14 %. given the ever growing importance of the real economy, the chinese government has for some years now been pursuing a policy of cautiously opening up the financial market and is endeavouring to gradually internationalise the rmb. even though the us dollar is still the most widely used currency for trade with china, the use of the rmb as a currency of account has gained significant ground in the past few years. in trade finance, the chinese currency has surpassed the euro and now occupies second place, directly after the us dollar. measured in terms of transaction values, the rmb edged up to fourth place in august in the international payment transactions ranking. according to data from swift, more than 1, 700 banks worldwide ( from a total of just over 10, 000 participants in the swift network ) clear payments in rmb. in the past, the chinese government strengthened the rmb offshore markets, giving importers outside china a means of paying in rmb. for the political leaders, this was part of the long - term strategy to open up the markets with greater convertibility of rmb while retaining the ability to exercise control. this is because clearing in the rmb offshore markets requires the appointment of a ( chinese ) rmb clearing bank. as part of this strategy, the chinese central bank

. possible advantages such as safety and efficiency improvements in everyday payments, productivity gains by promoting money which could be used in programmable environments, or the availability of new services must clearly outweigh the potential risks with regard to monetary policy or financial stability. in any case, it must be properly designed so as to mitigate all of those risks. the eurosystem is taking a comprehensive approach to addressing these challenges. as part of a high - level eurosystem task force, my colleagues and i identified possible scenarios that would require the issuance of a digital euro and published them last october in the ecb ’ s “ report on a digital euro ” 4 the governing council of the ecb has not yet reached a decision on whether to introduce a digital euro. we must first be sure that there is a need to issue cbdc and, if so, that we are able to manage the accompanying risks. in the digital age, time is of essence. but we also have to take the time to do our homework. therefore, the eurosystem has started to engage widely with citizens, academia, the financial sector and public authorities to assess in detail their needs, as well as the benefits and challenges they expect from the issuance of a digital euro. in mid - january, a public consultation on the digital euro came to an end with record levels of participation from european citizens. experimental work supports the analysis of possible technical designs and their implications. 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches further outreach to the market and exchange with other international central banks leading the work on central bank digital currencies will follow. and this brings me to my last point. 4 international dimension will be key international cooperation will be key in shaping the future ecosystem for central bank digital currencies. as the bis and other central banks have rightly emphasised in their report5 regardless of the final design, there are certain core features and common standards that are valuable in guiding a central bank when deciding to issue a digital currency for the public. the features i consider most relevant in this context are convertibility, interoperability and international standards. convertibility is essential to ensure trust in a currency. people must be sure they can exchange the form of the money they hold at par at any point in time. interoperability is required to ensure a smooth exchange of money between different kinds of payment systems. in a digitalised world, this is an absolute prerequisite to ensure an efficient financial system. finally, appropriate