https://eir.news/2025/03/news/china-preparing-to-withdraw-62-trillion-from-europe-creating-alternative-euroclear/
Michael O. Billington
March 6, 2025 . 11:06 AM

[Might be true]

March 6, 2025 (EIRNS)—Euroclear, the Belgium-based clearing house famous for stealing the Russian reserves, may soon lose trillions of dollars when China opens a competitor settlement house, and withdraws its reserves from Europe. The London-based Financial Times reports today: “Hong Kong authorities are pushing to create an Asian rival to Europe’s influential securities depositories, in a bid to lessen dependence on Western financial infrastructure and boost global use of the renminbi. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing [HKEX], which runs the stock market, said on Tuesday [March 4] it was working with the territory’s monetary authority to develop an Asian international settlement house that could rival Belgium’s Euroclear and Clearstream of Luxembourg.”

FT adds that HKEX and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said the venture would provide a platform for Beijing’s ambition to “internationalize” the renminbi, by deepening the use of the currency as a global reserve asset and for settling trades. It would “advance the development of Hong Kong’s fixed-income market, enabling the next chapter of renminbi internationalization and enhancing Hong Kong’s status as an international financial center,” said Bonnie Chan, chief executive of HKEX.

Foreign investors would be able to manage renminbi-denominated bond liquidity and hold global assets under Hong Kong’s jurisdiction.

FT adds, “The HKMA has been exploring the creation of a competitor to the European duo since at least June 2022. China is the world’s second-largest fixed-income market at about $25 trillion while CMU [Hong Kong’s fixed-income central securities depository] holds $5 trillion in assets under custody. By contrast, Euroclear, the market leader, holds around $42 trillion while $20 trillion sits at Clearstream.”