China's financial authorities announced the start of direct trading between Swiss franc and Chinese renminbi. According to an official statement of the China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS), which is a sub-institution of the People’s Bank of China, the direct transaction between the franc and yuan is available now. “This is an important step in strengthening bilateral economic and trade connections between China and Switzerland. And China and Switzerland will make further efforts to mutually promote the direct trading between the two currencies based on the market principle. Development of direct trading between RMB and CHF will contribute to the formation of direct exchange rate between the two currencies. This will help lower currency conversion cost for economic entities, facilitate the use of RMB and CHF in bilateral trade and investment,” the People’s Bank of China said in a statement on its website. It is noteworthy that the Swiss franc became the seventh major currency that can bypass a conversion into the US dollar and will be directly exchanged for the yuan. China has already clinched the deals allowing direct trading of the yuan with the US, Australian, and New Zealand dollars, British pound, Japanese yen, and euro. Analysts note that the agreement on direct trading with the Swiss franc seems to be the next step in a series of measures designed to achieve the reserve-currency status for the Chinese yuan at the International Monetary Fund.