The yuan has risen five spots in the past three years to be the most used currency in Asia-Pacific for payments with China's mainland and Hong Kong, a global payment agency said yesterday.

The Chinese currency accounted for an average 31 percent of payments in Asia-Pacific with the mainland and Hong Kong in April, up from 7 percent in April 2012, according to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, a body that facilitates transactions among financial institutions.

The yen, Hong Kong dollar, US dollar and Australian dollar followed as other major currencies in the region.

"Singapore and South Korea have adopted the yuan for the majority of payments to China," said Michael Moon, head of Asia-Pacific payments at SWIFT.

"The Asia-Pacific is clearly paving the way forward when it comes to yuan adoption."

Vina Cheung, HSBC global head of RMB internationalization, said the use of the yuan has become a topic of debate in more than a fifth of company boardrooms around the world, and companies in Asia generally have been quicker to adopt the currency.

Globally, the yuan retained its spot as the fifth most used currency in the payment system in April with a market share of 2.07 percent, the highest in four months, SWIFT said.

The yuan has been making progress toward being a global currency. The People's Bank of China has named yuan-clearing lenders in 11 cities, including Seoul, Sydney and Kuala Lumpur, in the past year.

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