StanChart and HSBC to launch higher-yielding RMB products

Regulators sealed agreement allowing HK financial institutions to offer higher returns on yuan savings accounts.

Standard Chartered Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc plan to offer higher-yielding yuan products in Hong Kong after regulators agreed to encourage the city’s residents to invest using the currency.

Standard Chartered will offer yuan investments that link returns to the performance of an underlying index, the London- based bank said in a press release. HSBC, Europe’s largest lender, said in a statement it will have a product that offers an “enhanced yield” with interest payments tied to the performance of the currency, known as the renminbi.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the People’s Bank of China on Monday signed an agreement allowing financial institutions to offer higher returns on yuan savings accounts in the city, which currently pay interest of less than 0.5 percent. Deposits in China’s currency in Hong Kong rose 4.7 percent in May to 84.7 billion yuan ($12.5 billion), HKMA figures show.

View the full story in Business Week.