Sydney expected to get yuan clearing bank soon

Beijing is set to accelerate plans to boost the international use of yuan by concluding pacts with key regional trading partners Australia and Singapore.

Sydney was on track to become the next offshore city to obtain a yuan clearing bank - as early as December - Elmer Funke Kupper, the chief executive of Australian's securities exchange, told the South China Morning Post.

The central banks of the two countries were engaged in talks on ways to boost yuan liquidity in Australia, Funke Kupper said, adding that it would be a "crime" to miss out on the opportunity to grow yuan business in Sydney given that China was Australia's largest trading partner.

"The [yuan] in Australia is small because the companies are not well connected, and we are fixing that now," he said. "It is also because there is no [yuan] liquidity as there is no clearing bank.

"We are very hopeful that they will do that very soon, in the next few months."

Funke Kupper was speaking on the sidelines of an ASX investment conference in Hong Kong.

The clearing bank deal could be signed when President Xi Jinping visits Australia for the Group of 20 meeting next month. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott could sign off on an Australia-China free-trade agreement as well as the yuan deal.