State-owned Bank of Taiwan (BOT, 臺灣銀行) said yesterday that the cost of exchanging Chinese yuan is expected to be cheaper by the end of this month once authorized Taiwanese banks begin buying yuan directly from the Hong Kong arm of Bank of China (中國銀行).
BOT executive vice president Yang Li-yen (楊豊彥) said that after the Hong Kong unit of BOT and Bank of China (Hong Kong) Ltd signed a cash settlement agreement on July 26, BOT was allowed to buy yuan cash with US dollars. However, some issues remained to be settled, he said.
Yang explained that settlement of yuan and New Taiwan dollar notes involves cross-border transport and security issues, and that the timing of the settlement is also very important.
BOT and state-controlled Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀) — Taiwan’s top two foreign exchange banks — were approved by the central bank last month to engage in yuan cash settlement services. Both banks have already signed the new settlement agreement with the Chinese.
Yang said BOT is also in the process of signing contracts with local financial institutions to provide them with yuan notes.
Local banks currently buy yuan in Hong Kong from HSBC and Bank of America. However, the supply of notes — most of which are old — from those two banks has not been very stable and the cost of procuring them is relatively high.
The central bank has estimated that the new cash settlement agreements could lead to savings of about NT$1,000 on every procurement of 20,000 yuan (US$2,950).
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