Standard Bank has processed more than CNY 8 billion (roughly $1.2 billion) in transactions through China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, marking a tangible early success for Africa’s first direct link into the yuan-based network.
The Johannesburg-based lender, Africa’s largest by assets, received authorization to offer CIPS transactions in June 2025 at the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai. The system went live later that year, allowing banks and corporate clients to clear and settle Africa-China payments directly in renminbi rather than routing everything through intermediary currencies.
Within its first year of operation the corridor has already expanded beyond South Africa. Standard Bank now offers CIPS access in Angola, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho and Tanzania, targeting the continent’s busiest trade routes with China. Further roll-outs are planned before the end of 2026.
“The payment system’s rapid scale is clear,” said Ontiretse Modise, Head of Payments for Corporate and Investment Banking at Standard Bank. “Surpassing CNY 8 billion in transaction flows within the first year reflects strong demand for seamless trade with the world’s second-largest economy.”
China remains Africa’s largest trading partner and a dominant source of industrial inputs. Standard Bank’s own Africa Trade Barometer shows that Asian countries are now the preferred trading partners for 35 percent of surveyed businesses across 10 markets, up from 24 percent a year earlier. China alone is cited as the leading source of inputs by 67 percent of respondents, driven by competitive pricing, product range and supply-chain reliability.
Until recently, most of those flows still settled through dollar intermediaries, adding cost, delay and foreign-exchange exposure. CIPS short-circuits that path. Participants clear payments in RMB through China’s domestic system, reducing settlement layers and giving African corporates a more direct channel into Chinese suppliers and markets.
The milestone arrives against a broader push by Beijing to internationalize the renminbi and by African banks to diversify payment rails. Standard Bank’s early mover status first African bank authorized for CIPS, and later jointly authorized with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China as a renminbi clearing bank for the continent positions it to capture a growing share of those flows.
For African importers the immediate benefits are operational: fewer correspondent-bank hops, potentially lower fees, and reduced dollar volatility risk on China-bound invoices. Exporters gain a cleaner settlement path when Chinese buyers prefer to pay in yuan. Banks and financial institutions in the expanded footprint can now offer clients the same direct connectivity that was previously limited to South Africa.
Modise framed the bank’s ambition in practical terms: expanding access across more African markets to deepen trade corridors and support faster, more efficient cross-border activity. The bank views CIPS as one piece of a larger payments evolution that includes digital rails, real-time systems and greater currency optionality.
Whether CNY 8 billion becomes a launchpad or a plateau will depend on how quickly additional markets are brought online, how aggressively Chinese and African corporates adopt the channel, and how competing corridors dollar, euro or other regional systems respond. For now, the volume provides concrete evidence that a direct Africa-China payments link is both technically viable and commercially relevant.
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