China Plans Onshore FX Access for Eight Offshore Yuan Clearing Banks

China's central bank plans to let eight offshore yuan clearing banks trade for their own accounts in the country's domestic interbank foreign exchange market, a pilot aimed at connecting yuan activity inside and outside China.

The group would include Chinese and foreign institutions that clear yuan transactions outside mainland China. Their proposed access would cover proprietary trading, meaning trades a bank makes for itself, in China's interbank FX market. The trading permission is still a proposal.

The central bank presented the measure at the 2026 Financial Street Forum on Oct. 19. It is intended to make it easier for overseas financial institutions to buy and sell yuan in the domestic market and to bring onshore and offshore markets closer together.

Onshore yuan activity occurs within mainland China; offshore activity occurs beyond it. The pilot would connect those markets through banks that clear yuan transactions overseas. It concerns a defined group of eight clearing banks, rather than a change already in effect across the wider market.