【英语财经】中资金融机构全球交易重心转向伦敦 Chinese financial institutions keen to enter London hub

Opposite one corner of the Bank of England stands the Bank of China, with the red national flag proudly pointing towards the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street. On another corner is the home of Agricultural Bank of China and less than 100m away is ICBC.

Drawn on a map, they encircle the City’s most important institution and symbolise how China’s biggest financial institutions are growing closer to the heart of London’s business.

The UK capital’s position partly rests on its status as the world’s largest hub for foreign exchange and over-the-counter derivatives trading, where deals worth billions of dollars are executed daily.

Until recently, deals in renminbi barely made an impact. Two years ago the US dollar-renminbi was only the 14th most actively-traded currency pair on EBS, the foreign exchange trading venue run by ICAP, but has risen to third place this year. On peak trading days over the summer, it accounted for a quarter of EBS’s total volume.

“The relevance of London as a major hub for the renminbi has accelerated in the last year,” said Darryl Hooker, co-head of EBS BrokerTec Markets.

That breakthrough in currency markets is being mirrored elsewhere. The amount of notional outstanding dollar-renminbi derivatives cleared at LCH.Clearnet, a London clearing house, has more than doubled in the past 18 months to about $30bn.

Meanwhile, the UK has become the first country outside China to issue renminbi-denominated debt and some of the largest Chinese banks have been designated as London-based agents for renminbi clearing payments. Nine Chinese institutions have become members of the

London Stock Exchange

, including CCB London, Haitong Securities, BOCI Securities and ICBC Standard Bank.

This week’s state visit will lead to more agreements. Three Chinese banks are making their London stock market debut this week. They are also pushing ahead with plans to participate in London’s gold and silver pricing auctions.

There are large hurdles to overcome before these developments become a key part of the City’s business. A vast amount of Chinese business remains outside international financial markets infrastructure such as CLS, the world’s largest forex settlement system.

“There are credit challenges for some of the Chinese banks trading business internationally. The big game-changer would be using CLS, which would reduce settlement risk by 95 per cent,” said Mr Hooker. But CLS has been discussing accepting renminbi for three years.

A further complication lies with new European rules that banks and lawyers warn could stymie London’s attempts to attract more swaps trading, which are used to hedge against the impact of interest rates or currency moves. Banks are worried they will be prevented from trading certain types of derivatives with counterparties based in some emerging markets because there will be insufficient legal protection of their trades.

“This issue is not specific of the proposed European Union’s rules, but it is common to all the major jurisdictions,” said a source at the European Banking Authority, which hopes to come up with a solution before the end of the year.

Links within equity markets may be limited. Both governments are exploring a link between the LSE and its Shanghai counterpart but most observers doubt a scheme would have a large impact on the financial markets of either country. Obstacles include uncertainty over the ability to interchange Chinese and UK shares and requirements to settle trades in a short single-day window, given time differences.

“China’s approach of using ‘Connect’ schemes [as the link between LSE and Shanghai is known] is designed to allow the authorities to closely monitor and limit flows in large part in order that destabilising flows can be avoided,” said Chang Liu, an analyst at Capital Economics. “Recent volatility and open official interference in China’s equity markets will surely have further reduced the appeal for international investors.”

Despite links with Frankfurt, Paris and Luxembourg, “we anticipate it would be a drift towards London as a trading hub”, said Mr Hooker.

英国央行(Bank of England)一个角对着中国银行(Bank of China)——后者悬挂的五星红旗骄傲地飘向这位“针线街老妇人”（Old Lady of Threadneedle Street，英国央行的别称——译者注），另一个角挨着中国农业银行(Agricultural Bank of China)，中国工商银行(ICBC)则在不到100米外。

从地图上看，这3家中资银行围绕着伦敦金融城(City of London)最重要的机构，象征着中国最大型金融机构正越来越接近伦敦商业的核心。

伦敦的地位在一定程度上依赖于其作为全球最大外汇及场外衍生品交易中心的地位，在这里，每日有价值数十亿美元的交易得到执行。

直到不久前，人民币交易还几乎没有产生什么影响。两年前，美元-人民币这个货币对的交易活跃度在毅联汇业(ICAP)旗下外汇交易平台EBS上仅排名第14，但今年已升至第3位。在今年夏季最为活跃的交易日，这个货币对占到了EBS总交易额的四分之一。

EBS BrokerTec Markets联席主管达里尔?胡克(Darryl Hooker)表示：“去年，伦敦作为人民币主要交易中心的重要性提高了。”

不光在外汇市场，人民币在其他领域也在取得突破。过去18个月，伦敦清算所(LCH.Clearnet)清算的未平仓美元-人民币衍生品的名义金额增加逾一倍，至300亿美元左右。

与此同时，英国已成为中国以外首个发行人民币债券的国家，多家大型中资银行已被指定为驻伦敦的人民币清算支付代理机构。有9家中国金融机构已成为伦敦证交所(LSE)会员，包括建行(CCB)伦敦分行、海通证券(Haitong Securities)、中银国际证券(BOCI Securities)和工银标准银行(ICBC Standard Bank)。

本周中国国家主席习近平对英进行国事访问，将促成更多协议。中资机构还在推进参与伦敦金银定价拍卖的计划。

在这些进展成为伦敦金融城业务的重要组成部分之前，还需克服几个重大障碍。很大一部分中国业务仍未被纳入国际金融市场基础设施，例如全球最大的外汇结算系统CLS。

伦敦的中国银行

胡克表示：“一些从事国际业务交易的中资银行面临信用挑战。改变这一局面的一个重要方法是使用CLS，这将把结算风险降低95%。”但CLS有关接纳人民币的讨论已进行了3年。

另一个复杂之处在于新的欧洲规定，银行和律师警告称，这些规定可能会扼杀伦敦吸引更多掉期交易的计划，这些交易是用来对冲利率或汇率变动的影响。银行担心，它们可能无法与位于某些新兴市场的对手方交易衍生品，因为这些交易将不会得到充分的法律保护。

欧洲银行管理局(European Banking Authority)一消息人士表示：“这个问题并不是拟议中的欧盟规定所特有的，而是普遍存在于所有主要司法管辖区。”该局希望在今年年底前拿出解决方案。

股市之间的连通可能是有限的。中英两国政府都在探讨建立伦敦证交所与上海证交所的连通机制，但多数观察人士认为该机制不会对任何一方的金融市场产生重大影响。其中的障碍包括围绕中英股票交换能力的不确定性，以及在存在时差的情况下在一个短短的日内时间窗口内结算交易的要求。

“中国诉诸‘连通’机制的做法，旨在让监管机构能够密切监控并限制资金流动，这在很大程度上是为了避免资金流动引起动荡。”凯投宏观(Capital Economics)分析师刘畅表示，“最近中国股市的动荡以及官方对股市的公开干预，肯定进一步削弱了它对国际投资者的吸引力。”

胡克表示，尽管中国与法兰克福、巴黎和卢森堡建立了互通，但“我们预期，中国将逐步转向把伦敦作为一个交易中心。”

译者/梁艳裳