The People’s Bank of China released the “Financial Statistics Report for the First Quarter of 2026” on April 13, which showed that the amount of cross-border RMB settlement under the current account in the first quarter was 4.52 trillion yuan, and the amount of cross-border RMB settlement for direct investment was 2.11 trillion yuan, totaling 6.63 trillion yuan.
Among them, trade in goods, trade in services and other current accounts were 3.62 trillion yuan and 0.9 trillion yuan respectively; foreign direct investment and foreign direct investment were 0.76 trillion yuan and 1.35 trillion yuan respectively.
Compared with the same period last year, this set of data continues to grow.
In the first quarter of 2025, the amount of cross-border RMB settlement under the current account was 3.96 trillion yuan, and the amount of cross-border RMB settlement for direct investment was 2.09 trillion yuan, totaling about 6.05 trillion yuan.
Based on this calculation, the total cross-border RMB settlement in the first quarter of 2026 will increase by approximately 0.58 trillion yuan year-on-year, an increase of approximately 9.6%.
Among them, the current account increased by approximately 14.1% year-on-year, and the direct investment account increased by approximately 1.0% year-on-year.
Compared with the previous quarter, the pace has slowed down.
The People’s Bank of China disclosed that the cross-border RMB settlement amount under the current account for the whole year of 2025 was 17.86 trillion yuan, and the cross-border RMB settlement amount for direct investment was 8.46 trillion yuan; in the first three quarters of 2025, it was 11.76 trillion yuan and 6.04 trillion yuan respectively.
Calculating the whole year minus the first three quarters, the current account in the fourth quarter of 2025 is about 6.10 trillion yuan, and the direct investment account is about 2.42 trillion yuan, totaling about 8.52 trillion yuan.
By comparison, the 6.63 trillion yuan in the first quarter of 2026 is about 1.89 trillion yuan less than the fourth quarter of 2025, a decrease of about 22.2% from the previous quarter.
It should be noted here that the fourth quarter figures are backcalculations and are not quarterly values separately disclosed by the central bank.
Let’s look at the structure of the data disclosed this time.
In the first quarter of 2026, the current account was 4.52 trillion yuan, significantly higher than the 2.11 trillion yuan under direct investment; within the current account, trade in goods accounted for another 3.62 trillion yuan.
Compared with the first quarter of 2025, trade in goods rose from 3.12 trillion yuan to 3.62 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.5 trillion yuan; service trade and other current accounts rose from 0.84 trillion yuan to 0.9 trillion yuan; direct investment only rose slightly from 2.09 trillion yuan to 2.11 trillion yuan.
Overall, this round of cross-border RMB settlement growth is mainly driven by trade-related RMB settlement.
The increase in the scale of cross-border RMB settlements first corresponds to the collection, settlement, reconciliation, accounts, sub-accounts and fund collection needs of the transaction side.
Goods trade is still the main force, which shows that the focus of cross-border use of RMB still falls on high-frequency trading scenarios such as foreign trade, cross-border e-commerce, platform-based merchant services, and corporate overseas expansion.
Institutions that are closer to real orders, real shipments and real payment collections are more likely to accept this increase.
For banks, this corresponds to corporate settlement, global cash management, trade finance and cross-border account service spaces; for cross-border payment institutions, this corresponds to corporate collections, platform settlement, domestic and foreign fund coordination, and supporting service needs for overseas merchants.
Cross-border RMB settlement is not an abstract concept. It corresponds to real orders, logistics flows and fund return arrangements.
The volume of goods trade continues to be higher than other sub-items, which also shows that this business line is still rooted in the transaction side.
From the perspective of quarterly rhythm, it is not surprising that the first quarter fell back compared with the fourth quarter.
At the end of the year, factors such as corporate centralized settlement, trade repayments, and capital dispatch are usually superimposed, and the base number in the fourth quarter is often on the high side.
More importantly, the year-on-year growth is still maintained, and the growth mainly comes from the current account, especially trade in goods, indicating that the main support for cross-border RMB settlement has not changed.
Corresponding to the business level, the most obvious expansion is still the need for cross-border collection and settlement.
When it comes to this set of data itself, the conclusion is not complicated.
First, the overall cross-border RMB settlement is still growing, and the business base has not weakened; second, the increase mainly comes from the current account, especially trade in goods, and the cross-border use of RMB continues to be concentrated in real transaction scenarios; third, what payment institutions can undertake is still collection, settlement and capital coordination services centered on corporate cross-border transactions.
The growth of cross-border RMB settlement has corresponded to specific business needs such as collection, settlement and fund coordination.
