Taiwan, China sign currency clearing deal

TAIPEI, Taiwan ? Taiwanese banks will be allowed start handling China's tightly controlled currency this year.

A long-anticipated memorandum of understanding was signed separately Friday by Zhou Xiaochuan, head of the People's Bank of China in Beijing, and his counterpart in Taipei, Perng Fai-nan.

Under the deal, Taiwanese banks can take yuan deposits and convert yuan into the New Taiwan dollar, skipping the current process of first converting the yuan into U.S. dollars.

Taipei has pushed Beijing hard for signing a currency clearing pact to benefit Taiwanese investors on the mainland and local banks. The two sides split amid civil war in 1949 but have increasingly closer trade ties.

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsWebMD/~3/8TFGvfY6IH0/

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