The Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) is a clearing and settlement infrastructure for cross-border renminbi (RMB) transactions, operated by Cross-Border Interbank Payment System Co., Ltd., a company supervised by the People's Bank of China (PBoC). It went live in October 2015, with a second phase launched in 2018 extending operating hours to nearly 24 hours to cover all global time zones.
CIPS is often described in policy debates as a potential rival to SWIFT and to the U.S. dollar-based CHIPS system, but the comparison is imprecise. SWIFT is primarily a messaging network, while CIPS provides both messaging and clearing for RMB. In practice, many CIPS participants still use SWIFT messaging to communicate payment instructions, so the two systems are partly complementary rather than purely substitutes.
The system has two tiers: direct participants, which hold accounts with CIPS and settle directly, and indirect participants, which access the system via a direct participant. Participants include major Chinese state banks as well as foreign banks operating in jurisdictions across Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
CIPS has attracted geopolitical attention for several reasons:
- It supports Beijing's longer-term goal of RMB internationalisation, complementing offshore RMB clearing hubs in Hong Kong, London, Singapore, and elsewhere.
- After Western sanctions disconnected several Russian banks from SWIFT following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, analysts examined whether CIPS could serve as a sanctions-evasion channel. In practice, most major Chinese banks have remained cautious about facilitating sanctioned transactions due to exposure to U.S. secondary sanctions.
- It is frequently cited in discussions of financial fragmentation and the erosion of dollar dominance, though RMB's share of global payments (tracked monthly by SWIFT's RMB Tracker) remains far below that of the U.S. dollar and euro.
For MUN and policy researchers, CIPS is a useful case study in monetary statecraft, infrastructure competition, and the limits of de-dollarisation.
Example
In March 2023, Russian and Chinese officials publicly emphasised expanded use of CIPS and RMB settlement for bilateral trade following G7 sanctions on Russian banks' access to SWIFT.
Frequently asked questions
Not directly. SWIFT is a messaging network; CIPS handles both messaging and clearing, but only for RMB. Many CIPS participants still rely on SWIFT to transmit payment instructions.
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