LONDON, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- Britain retained its top place for offshore RMB foreign exchange (FX) transactions, a report named London RMB Business Quarterly said Tuesday.

The London RMB Business Quarterly report was co-compiled by City of London and the People's Bank of China (PBoC) Representative Office For Europe.

Britain remains the country with the largest share of RMB payments outside of Hong Kong, the report quoted the SWIFT data as saying.

It also retained its first place in terms of offshore RMB FX transactions, accounting for 38.64 percent of global RMB FX trading volume, the report said.

Figures showed that the total actual cross-border RMB settlement between China and Britain amounted to 288 billion RMB (41.8 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three quarters, an increase of 144 percent on a year-on-year basis. The total cumulative clearing volume was 7.7 trillion RMB (1.1 trillion dollars) in the first three quarters, up 19.5 percent year-on-year.

Additionally, 22 Dim Sum bonds were newly listed on the London Stock Exchange in the third quarter of 2018, with the total size of 4.9 billion RMB (71 million dollars) which increased 36.9 percent quarte-on-quarter and the average coupon rate of 4.57 percent.

"London is the leading offshore RMB trading hub outside of Asia, and this report aims to help us maintain this position, providing an overview of the market for Chinese currency in the city," said Catherine McGuinness, chair of Policy and Resources City of London Corporation.

"It highlights Londons influence as a leader in the RMB internationalization market outside of Asia and the PBoC's efforts to develop and sustain the RMB market at home and abroad," said Jin Mei, chief representative at the PBoC Representative Office for Europe.

"With access to onshore RMB investments in China rapidly increasing, opportunities for new products and ways to manage currency exposure are also growing," said Jin, adding that "this makes for exciting times for the City of London and international investors."