The People's Bank of China signed a five-year currency swap worth 30 billion yuan (about $4.5 billion) with the Central Bank of Oman on Monday, Nov. 2, and paired it with a memorandum of understanding on digital payments and central bank digital currency, the PBOC said in a statement on its website.

The agreements, signed in Beijing during Omani Sultan Haitham bin Tariq's state visit to China, are the latest step in Beijing's effort to build payment channels for the yuan and its digital version, the e-CNY, outside the dollar system. A day later the PBOC sat down with Bank Indonesia to discuss linking payment systems and cooperating on digital currency. For banks, exporters and payment companies in Asia, the week offered a clear signal of where China's central bank is putting its cross-border energy.

PBOC and Oman: a swap line plus a CBDC memorandum

PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng signed both documents with Ahmed bin Jaafar Al Musalmi, governor of the Central Bank of Oman, with the two heads of state present, according to the PBOC statement and an Anadolu report carried by Middle East Monitor. The swap covers 30 billion yuan against 1.5 billion Omani rials and runs for five years.

The PBOC said the agreements would deepen monetary and financial cooperation between the two countries, make cross-border digital payments easier and help keep financial markets stable. Al Musalmi said the swap line would support Oman's economic development by strengthening financial stability, and that the memorandum would let the two central banks exchange expertise on digital currencies, Anadolu reported.

The trade numbers explain the interest on both sides. China was Oman's largest trading partner in 2025, accounting for 23.8% of the sultanate's total trade, according to Oman's Foreign Ministry as cited by Anadolu. Two-way trade came to about 9.6 billion rials last year, of which Omani exports to China made up 7.7 billion rials.

A swap line lets a central bank draw on the other's currency to settle trade or calm funding stress without passing through dollars. The digital currency memorandum is less concrete. Oman is at an early stage with its own CBDC: in June it sought an international consultancy to act as independent assessor for its program, covering feasibility, design and governance, Ledger Insights reported.

Ledger Insights said the memorandum most likely involves knowledge sharing and the possible use of the digital yuan for cross-border payments. It noted that China launched its Cross Border e-CNY Transfer Services program, known as CBETS, in June and signed up a number of overseas banks and branches to support it.

e-CNY, mBridge and the Gulf

The Oman deal also revives questions about mBridge, the multi-CBDC settlement platform whose members include the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. Ledger Insights said Oman could join in the future but would gain little at its current stage, and argued the near-term focus is more likely the e-CNY itself.

Gulf membership has proved fluid. Saudi Arabia quietly left mBridge in May 2025 after finishing a proof of concept, a departure that became public only when the Financial Times reported it in September, according to Ledger Insights. The PBOC's statement on the Oman agreements did not mention mBridge.

For Hong Kong, the main offshore yuan hub and an mBridge member, more Gulf trade settled in yuan or e-CNY would add to clearing and liquidity business.

Bank Indonesia talks put payment links on the table

A day after the Oman signing, on Tuesday, Nov. 3, the PBOC held a joint working mechanism meeting with Bank Indonesia, according to a PBOC statement posted on Thursday. PBOC Deputy Governor Xuan Changneng and Bank Indonesia Deputy Governor Thomas Djiwandono attended and discussed progress under the mechanism and the next priorities for bilateral financial cooperation.

The two central banks said they would use the mechanism to seek more practical results in four areas: local currency cooperation, payment system connectivity, financial market cooperation and digital currency cooperation. The statement gave no timetable and named no specific projects.

Indonesia runs its own national QR payment standard, QRIS, so payment system connectivity with China could eventually reach everyday retail payments as well as trade settlement. The explicit mention of digital currency cooperation puts the e-CNY on the bilateral agenda alongside local currency settlement.

Neither statement included any figure on how much trade either country expects to settle in yuan or through digital currency, and the Oman memorandum has no published implementation date. The next markers to watch are any announcement that Omani or Indonesian banks have joined CBETS, and whether the Bank Indonesia talks produce a signed payment link.