Data updated on January 12, 2026: CIPS business now covers 189 countries and regions across six continents, with over 1,700 domestic and international participants, serving more than 5,000 corporate banking institutions. While continuously encrypting its global network, it has achieved breakthroughs in both profitability and technological strength, becoming a core force in the global cross-border payment field.
Profitability continues to lead the pack. CIPS’s high profitability is not accidental, but built on a solid foundation of network scale, cost advantages, and deep cultivation of application scenarios, resulting in outstanding performance from participating institutions. In terms of scale effect, overseas institutions account for 73% of CIPS’s direct participants and 62% of its indirect participants. In 2025, 82% of new direct participants were overseas institutions, and the vast global network brings a massive transaction base.
</ … On January 12, the People's Bank of China announced that DBS Bank had been granted RMB clearing bank status in Singapore. As a direct overseas participant in CIPS, it can directly coordinate with CIPS to process cross-border settlements for energy and commodities in Southeast Asia. The RMB settlement volume in this region is expected to exceed 800 billion yuan by 2025, providing solid support for profitability. Lakala, a company with dual cross-border payment qualifications, is also expected to exceed 800 billion yuan in cross-border transactions by 2025. Its Saudi energy settlement business has a transaction fee rate of only 1/5 of traditional channels, translating cost advantages into significant profit margins. On January 12, its transaction volume reached 2.891 billion yuan, with the number of cross-border merchants and transaction amount increasing by 76% and 85% year-on-year, respectively. Hailian Jinhui, leveraging its dual payment licenses, is expected to process over 300 billion yuan in RMB settlements for Sino-Iranian oil transactions by 2025, becoming a core service provider in the energy cross-border settlement field. Cost optimization further amplifies profit potential. CIPS's hybrid settlement model of "real-time gross + scheduled net" allows large sums of money to arrive in 8 seconds, batch transactions to be settled on the same day, improving capital turnover efficiency by 40% and significantly reducing the liquidity costs of financial institutions, which in turn translates into a 66% reduction in fees for users. As a core direct participant, ICBC has increased the number of its offshore RMB clearing banks to 12. Leveraging its massive cross-border fund settlement scale, its international business continues to contribute to the group's revenue, becoming a key engine for profit growth. Deepening its application across various scenarios opens up new growth opportunities. CIPS has been integrated with 95% of foreign banks in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative, and its network in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia continues to expand. The establishment of direct foreign participation by Standard Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Africa fills regional gaps, and the application of high-frequency scenarios such as energy, cross-border e-commerce, and commodities continues to deepen, driving a simultaneous increase in transaction volume and profitability.
Strong technical support. Technological innovation is the key to CIPS’ core competitiveness, running through the entire chain of clearing efficiency, security, and international adaptation, providing a solid foundation for business expansion. Clearing efficiency has achieved a leapfrog improvement. CIPS deeply integrates blockchain and smart contract technologies, achieving real-time clearing in 8 seconds, more than 300 times faster than traditional cross-border payments, and supports “5×24 hours + normalized service on overseas working days”, completely breaking the limitations of time and geography. Chinalco Group has realized cross-border delivery of aluminum ingots through the CIPS “blockchain + smart contract” model, reducing the entire process from 7 days to 19 minutes, saving 83% in compliance costs, demonstrating the value of technology empowerment. Changliang Technology’s “Multi-Currency Second-Level Clearing System” has served over 200 banks and is currently deploying CIPS integration solutions for Middle Eastern institutions. Its proprietary dual-mode compatibility technology perfectly adapts to CIPS’s mixed settlement needs, and overseas orders are expected to increase by 50% in 2026. Security safeguards strengthen risk defenses. CIPS explicitly defines accounts as having “zero balance, no interest, and no overdraft,” with mandatory zeroing of the daily balance. Combined with the central bank’s clearing account custody and cross-bank real-time query functions, it successfully intercepted 37 suspicious transactions in 2024, involving 120 million yuan. Xin’an Century’s quantum encryption technology, certified by the central bank, provides security modules for directly participating banks such as Bank of Communications and Bank of China, ensuring foolproof fund settlement and becoming a core support for CIPS information security. DBS Bank adopts a blockchain + CIPS dual-track model, coupled with a dynamic threshold risk control model, which can flexibly adjust transaction limits, effectively preventing cross-border transaction risks. It also participates in the “front-end freedom + back-end supervision” sandbox design, achieving a dual balance between compliance and user experience. International adaptability continues to upgrade. CIPS has launched services for five major currencies, including USD, EUR, and JPY. It employs a multi-currency account + single-message system design, capable of processing 3,000 multi-currency transactions per second. In 2026, it will complete the ISO 20022 message standard upgrade, further enhancing international compatibility. Sifang Jingchuang, as a core service provider for the central bank digital currency bridge (mBridge), leads the design of the underlying architecture for cross-border payments. Its blockchain technology has been implemented in more than 10 digital RMB cross-border projects in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, with related revenue accounting for over 40% by 2025. Technology export has become a significant growth driver. From technological innovation to explosive profit growth, CIPS is reshaping the global cross-border payment landscape through a dual-engine approach of “technology empowerment + scale expansion.” Participating institutions such as ICBC, DBS Bank, and Lakala continue to benefit from their first-mover advantage. The robust support from underlying technology service providers like Sifang Jingchuang and Changliang Technology further enhances the competitiveness of this financial infrastructure, injecting sustained momentum into the internationalization of the RMB.
