“The City of London initiative supports the currency’s inclusion on the basis that the RMB already meets much of the SDR’s currency criteria, having developed rapidly since the 2010 review carried out by the IMF. The world can benefit from having multiple reserve currencies, and with the RMB playing an increasingly important role as a trade and investment currency, it is already becoming well integrated within the international monetary system.

“Although RMB internationalisation is expected to progress regardless of the IMF’s decision, admission of the currency to the SDR basket will help to build confidence in the long term nature of the trend of wider international RMB usage, encourage more central banks to hold the RMB as part of their FX reserves and, by extension, the availability and demand for RMB-denominated assets.”

--Mark Boleat, Policy Chairman of City of London Corporation, also Chairman of the Steering Committee of City of London’s RMB Initiative