LME Clear, the clearing house for the London Metal Exchange (LME) market, announced on Tuesday it can now accept offshore renminbi as eligible cash collateral, effective immediately.

Bank of China (BOC) London Branch becomes the first Chinese settlement bank for LME Clear. This follows regulatory approval from the Bank of England.

"We welcome LME Clear's renminbi initiative, which marks a milestone in providing tailored clearing services for the global metals industry," said Wang Huabin, deputy general manager at Bank of China London Branch.

"This demonstrates the commitment of BOC to develop itself as a truly global bank," Wang said.

It also shows another step by BOC in helping Chinese commodities companies to expand in global markets and develop global service capability, according to Wang.

The renminbi is seeing rapid adoption internationally. According to swift data, the Chinese currency is already one of the top-five global payment currencies.

"The renminbi is on its way to becoming one of the world's most widely-used currencies, and we are pleased to be able to help our members take advantage of the opportunities arising from the renminbi's internationalisation," said Trevor Spanner, chief executive of LME Clear.

The initiative follows calls from LME Clear members to extend the list of accepted cash collateral to include offshore renminbi.

LME is the futures exchange with the world's largest market in options and futures contracts on base and other metals.

To contact the reporter: zhangchunyan@chinadailyuk.com