London has overtaken Singapore as the second-largest offshore yuan clearing centre in terms of payments processing volumes, just behind Hong Kong. That was the word Thursday from the global transaction services organisation SWIFT.

Singapore had held the second spot since early 2014. But London began to catch up at the beginning of this year. Hong Kong processes 72.5 percent of all yuan payments, followed by London at 6.3 percent and Singapore at 4.6 percent.

SWIFT data also showed that 40 percent of all payments made between the United Kingdom and China and Hong Kong are exchanged in the yuan, 24 percent in Hong Kong dollars and 12 percent in pounds.