Chinese e-commerce sites in US can take yuan

Source: Xinhua | 2019-01-14

Bank of China’s New York branch will enable Chinese firms to receive payment in yuan rather than dollars from their sales on US e-commerce platforms this year.

Pledging to introduce more services for small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in cross-border trade between the United States and China, the branch said payment in yuan would be possible by tapping new functions of e-MPay, a cross-border system it launched in 2016.

It is developing a system using an existing platform to “facilitate trade finance for e-commerce players,” said Xu Chen, president and chief executive officer of Bank of China US.

The system will meet US anti-money laundering rules through artificial intelligence and cyber security. He gave no details. Bank of China has run into problems with overseas anti-money laundering laws in the past. In 2017, it agreed to pay a 600,000 euro (US$688,000) fine to settle a case involving its Milan branch.