Kyrgyzstan may shift international payments towards the yuan

Kyrgyzstan may gradually shift part of its international payments towards regional banks and the Chinese yuan against the backdrop of changes in correspondent banking relationships. This was stated by Pavel Shust, regional coordinator of the REMIT PRIME programme in Central Asia, at a forum dedicated to the development of international payments.

According to him, the tightening of conditions for international banking operations does not mean an end to the development of correspondent banking relationships. Rather, payment channels will be restructured to take regional trade links into account.

He cited the shift in the currency structure of international settlements as an example. He noted that a proportion of payments previously made in euros is now increasingly being settled in Chinese yuan.

Consequently, when settling foreign trade transactions, Kyrgyzstan may in future make more active use of regional banking channels and the currencies of its main trading partners.

Earlier, Anvar Abdraev, head of the Union of Banks of Kyrgyzstan, stated that over the past four to four and a half years, the number of banks’ correspondent accounts had fallen by 91.