Will China extend financial olive branch to Russia? Why you must know what CIPS is

China is Russia’s biggest export and important partner, and also operates a legitimate SWIFT alternative. China’s international payments system is called CIPS – an acronym for Cross-Border Interbank Payments System. Here's all you need to know about the Chinese international payment system which could be Russia's alternative to SWIFT:

• CIPS is a wholesale payment system authorized by the People’s Bank of China, specialising in RMB (Renminbi) cross-border payment clearing
• Up to now, CIPS has a total of 53 direct participants and 1,137 indirect participants (876 in Asia, including 527 Chinese mainland indirect participants, 153 in Europe, 42 in Africa, 26 in North America, 23 in Oceania, 17 in South America)
• The average daily transaction volume of CIPS reached 317.2 billion yuan ($49 billion) in August, 2021, up from about 190 billion a year ago
• The payments system was created to boost the global use of the yuan, which remains small compared to the size of China’s economy. The share of yuan payments via SWIFT stood at 2.2% in July, 2021