The term "settlement currency" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe the currency in which a payment is to be made. For example, "The parties agreed to a settlement in euros, as it would be the settlement currency for this transaction."
For now, piecemeal efforts, like a pilot program allowing companies in Shanghai to use renminbi as a trade settlement currency rather than dollars or euros, are a way to test the waters.
Including the yuan in the SDR basket can be thought of as the IMF's Good Housekeeping "Seal of Approval," signalling that it is ready for the big time as a global investment and trade settlement currency.
Third, promoting the yuan as a settlement currency will not solve China's problem of external imbalances.
Will financial institutions around the world wind up using Bitcoin as the global settlement currency?
Bitcoin, despite its ongoing internal strife, is very useful as permissionless global money, and has a legitimate shot at becoming a global reserve and settlement currency.
Either way, the operator maintains bitcoin gaming profits or player inventory in bitcoin with a need to determine a settlement currency.
Given that many of those deals just shuffle cash between Chinese companies and their subsidiaries in Hong Kong, there is much less than meets the eye to the yuan's stature as a trade-settlement currency.Even more telling is the yuan's standing as an investment currency.
Stock down 25% from September high; fourth-quarter profits hurt by lawsuit settlements, currency exchange.
Barclays, the first to be fined for rigging Libor in June 2012, is yet to agree a settlement for currency markets manipulation, although it has taken a provision of £1.25bn in preparation for a penalty.
As recently as May, Barclays paid a combined £1.53bn in settlements over currency rigging.
Countries also differ in settlement cycles, currencies, legal systems, and by a large number of settlement arrangements used for various types of securities.
