Hong Kong's Monetary Authority said Friday it has reappointed HSBC as the settlement institution for the U.S. dollar real-time gross settlement system in Hong Kong for a third five-year period.
HSBC was first appointed as the settlement institution for the system for five years from August 2000 when the system was launched. It was reappointed in August 2005.
In the first half of this year, the system settled 11,939 transactions a day on average, and had an average daily turnover value of 10.1 billion U.S. dollars. Compared with turnover five years ago, there have been increases of 48 percent in terms of value and 115 percent in terms of count.
In mid-2010, the system had 82 direct participants and 150 indirect participants. Among the indirect participants, 106 were banks domiciled outside Hong Kong.
The U.S. dollar Real Time Gross Settlement system, also known as U.S. dollar CHATS, has been operating in Hong Kong since August 2000 with HSBC as its settlement institution.
The U.S. dollar clearing system not only processes U.S. dollar interbank payments on an Real Time Gross Settlement basis, but also handles U.S. dollar paper-cheque clearing.
Interbank fund transfers are made through payment systems that are essential components of the financial infrastructure. Hong Kong's payment systems allow interbank transfers in the Hong Kong dollar, Renminbi, U.S. dollar and Euro.
