China will "soon" increase the number of companies involved in trials for cross-border yuan trade settlement, Bloomberg reported, citing Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) Chief Executive Norman Chan.

China's central bank will at least double the number of qualified exporting companies, which now stands at 300, Chan said. The HKMA is still in discussions with the People's Bank of China (PBOC) to decide the cross-border yuan trade settlement quota for the city for next year.

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An 8 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) quota was assigned this year to Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd, the clearing bank for yuan settlement in Hong Kong. The quota, which was only half- used on Sept 30, was depleted in less than a month. As a result, the HKMA on Oct 28 announced it will tap its yuan swap arrangement with PBOC.

"We hope that the quota next year can meet the rising demand in cross-border trade settlement, while ensuring risks are in a controlled manner," said Chan.

He declined to estimate the size of the 2011 quota. He said the scheme was not being misused by financial companies to engage in yuan speculation as reported by the Century Weekly in China on Nov 30.

"We did follow-up investigations and checked that all relevant transactions had real trade backgrounds," said Chan.

Until now, no bank in Hong Kong has approached the monetary authority for yuan funding via the swap agreement, Chan said. The agreement can draw an annual maximum of 200 billion yuan. The HKMA's application to invest in China's interbank bond market is still in progress, Chan said.