The renminbi now has a four percent market share in the global issuance of letters of credit by value. This makes it one of the world’s top three currencies in this space in April 2012 (year-to-date), after the US dollar and the euro.

With a share of over 80 percent in both the number of transactions and in transaction value (year-to-date 2012), the US dollar is the dominant currency for this type of trade finance.

The renminbi's four percent share makes it the third biggest currency for the issuance of letters of credit in transaction value, after the US dollar (84.4 percent) and the euro (7.0 percent) and before the yen (1.9 percent).

The biggest corridors where the renminbi is used in the issuance of letters of credit is the Asia-Pacific, with well over 50 percent of all letters of credit in transaction value being sent by banks in China to Hong Kong and nearly 20 percent going from China to Singapore.

This is a significant development, so far the focus has been on the renminbi’s steady climb as the world’s payments currency. It remains the world payments currency no 16 in April 2012, with a market share of 0.34 percent.