英国央行(Bank of England)长期有权按照其认为合适的尺度发行英镑。不久后，该机构也将能发放人民币资金。

英国央行上周五表示，即将与中国央行签署协议，使其能向英国各银行出借有限金额的人民币。作为交换条件，中国央行也将能发放英镑资金。

这一协议旨在推动英中两国之间的贸易及投资活动，巩固伦敦金融城(City of London)作为人民币离岸交易中心之一的声誉。

英国财相乔治?奥斯本(George Osborne)表示，所谓的“互换额度”协议是“又一个迹象，表明在全球竞争中，英国被新兴市场和发达市场都视为对商业开放”。

自去年1月奥斯本访问香港以来，推动伦敦成为人民币交易中心之一，一直是英国财相积极投入的项目。

未来几年里，如果北京方面开放中国的资本账户，让人民币自由交易，预计英国对华贸易将出现繁荣。面对银行监管及奖金规则收紧的伦敦金融城，正寄希望于发展其初生的人民币交易，以便向世人展示，它仍是一支不可小觑的力量。

现实是，在全球汇市每天4万亿美元的交易量中，人民币交易仍只占很小一部分。受中国当局严密管制的人民币仅占交易总量的1%，美元、欧元、日元和英镑的交易量都大得多。

许多银行家私下里认为，无论奥斯本是否居功自傲，伦敦都会迎接人民币的到来。伦敦是全球汇市交易枢纽，部分原因是其在一个24小时连续运行的市场中处于地理上的中间位置。伦敦在全球汇市每日交易量中占37%，远高于位居第二的纽约(18%)。

尽管香港是人民币首屈一指的离岸交易中心，但根据全球支付公司Swift的数据，伦敦已在最近超越新加坡，成为第二大中心。

英国远远不是唯一获准发放人民币资金的国家。迄今已有20个国家和地区的央行与中国央行签署了互换协议，包括澳大利亚、巴西、俄罗斯、香港和冰岛。

去年秋天，英国央行对自己成为最新一家与中国央行签署互换协议的央行感到忧虑，担心此举不过是北京方面的公关操作，意在展示中方正在放松针对境外获取人民币的限制。银行家们抱怨，他们曾请求英国央行提供互换额度，以增强各方交易人民币的信心，却被告知互换额度仅适用于紧急情况。

但是，英国央行的抵制态度似乎在今年消失了。英国央行首席出纳克里斯?索尔曼(Chris Salmon)——他的签名出现在所有新版英镑纸币上——上月表示，目前各方的“观感”是互换协议将提振市场信心，他补充称，英国央行原则上愿意响应这一呼吁。

银行家们表示，在操作上，对于那些与全球第二大经济体开展贸易往来的出口商，以及那些与人民币打交道的金融家，其日常活动几乎不会受到互换协议的任何影响。英国央行只会在人民币严重紧缺的情况下提供人民币资金；在伦敦市场充斥人民币流动性的情况下，英国央行和交易员都认为这种紧急情况不太可能成为现实。

相反，互换协议将被视为英国央行对人民币交易给予肯定的标志。近几个月来，银行家们一直在努力向企业强调使用人民币的好处。

大型跨国公司深知用人民币付款的优势。伦敦各银行近期试图增强这方面的认知，以鼓励中小企业也使用人民币。支付公司西联(Western Union)表示，英国企业如果用人民币向中国供应商付款，可获得至多3%的优惠折扣，原因是如果用美元支付的话，中国企业将加上把美元兑换成人民币的费用。

“各银行付出了巨大努力，以确保它们在客户登门时准备就绪，”花旗集团(Citigroup)在伦敦从事外汇业务的银行家吉尔斯?佩吉(Giles Page)表示。

“这是向国际社会发出的又一个信息，即伦敦仍是极其与时俱进和对商业开放的。”

汉娜?库赫勒(Hannah Kuchler)补充报道

译者/和风

The Bank of England has long had the right to hand out as many British bank notes as it sees fit. But Threadneedle Street may soon be able to dish out China’s currency as well.

The UK’s central bank said on Friday it was on the verge of signing an agreement with its counterpart, the People’s Bank of China, which would allow it to lend a limited amount of renminbi to British lenders. In return, the PBOC would be allowed to print pounds.

The deal is designed to spur trade and investment between the two countries and solidify the City of London’s reputation as an offshore trading hub for the Chinese currency.

George Osborne, chancellor, said the so-called “swap line” agreement was “another sign that, in the global race, Britain is seen as open for business by emerging and established markets alike”.

Promoting London as a centre for renminbi trading has been a pet project of the chancellor since his visit to Hong Kong in January last year.

Trade with China is expected to boom in the coming years if Beijing opens up China’s capital accounts and allows its currency to be freely traded. The City of London, faced with a crackdown on bank regulation and bonuses, is looking towards growing its nascent renminbi trade as a way of showing the world that it is still a force to be reckoned with.

The reality is that trade in the renminbi is still a tiny slice of the $4tn that changes hands each day in the global currency market. The US dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen and the UK pound are all far more widely traded, while the renminbi, which is tightly controlled by the Chinese authorities, accounts for just 1 per cent.

Privately, many bankers think that the renminbi will come to London whether Mr Osborne claims the glory or not. London is the global hub for currency trading, in part owing to its central geographical location in a 24-hour market. The city accounts for 37 per cent of daily trades, with New York’s 18 per cent putting it in a distant second place.

While Hong Kong is the centre for trading offshore renminbi, London recently overtook Singapore as the second largest centre, according to Swift, the global payments company.

Britain is far from being the only country allowed to hand out renminbi. So far, the central banks of 20 countries have agreed swap lines with the PBOC, including Australia, Brazil, Russia, Hong Kong and Iceland.

Back in the autumn, the BoE was wary of becoming the latest in a long line of central banks to sign up, fearing the move was little more than a public relations exercise for Beijing to show that it was easing the restrictions it places on foreign access to its currency. Bankers complained that they had asked the BoE to provide a swap line to boost confidence in trading the currency and were told that swap lines were for emergencies only.

But the BoE’s resistance appeared to diminish this year. Chris Salmon, the BoE’s chief cashier and whose signature appears on all new UK banknotes, said last month that there was a “perception” that a swap line would boost market confidence, and added that the Bank was ready in principle to agree the move.

Bankers say that, in practice, the swap line will make scant difference to the day-to-day activities of exporters trading with the world’s second largest economy and financiers dealing in the renminbi. The BoE will only offer the renminbi if there is a severe shortage of the Chinese currency; both the central bank and traders consider such an emergency unlikely with plenty of renminbi liquidity swishing around the London markets.

Instead, the swap line is seen as a stamp of authority from the Bank of England for renminbi trading. Bankers have been at pains in recent months to stress to companies the benefits of the renminbi.

Large multinational companies are well aware of the advantages of making payments in renminbi. Banks in London have been trying to raise awareness of the benefits for small and medium-sized business to use the renminbi too. Western Union, the payments company, says that UK companies can get discounts of as high as 3 per cent if they pay their Chinese suppliers in the Chinese currency. That is because Chinese companies will add a charge for the costs of transferring dollar payments back into renminbi.

“There’s been a massive effort by the banks to make sure they’re ready for when the customers come calling,” said Giles Page, a foreign exchange banker at Citigroup in London.

“This is another message to the international community that London remains extremely relevant and open to business.”

Additional reporting by Hannah Kuchler