China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) has launched a new foreign exchange trading system using Reuters Electronic Trading technology. On 9 April, trading for RMB against foreign currencies started over the new system, which went live on 12 March for trading other foreign currency pairs.

The new system offers a wide range of instruments, including spot rates, outright forwards, swaps and currency pairs. CFETS member banks will now be able to access and trade in real-time the Yuan and five global currency pair prices. Banks will have a choice of mechanisms to bid or access prices- one click trading, request for quote or limit orders. Initially there are five currency pairs being offered, the Chinese Yuan against the US Dollar, Japanese Yen, Hong Kong Dollar, Euro, and Sterling.

The CFETS portal is based on a version of Reuters Electronic Trading (RET) platform customised for RMB trading. At present, 21 market-makers have completed the development of the API interface and today they started automated and programmed quotation and trading of the RMB on the new system. ( Reuters )