Foreign companies yet to tap full potential of renminbi in trade

More than half of the respondents from the United Arab Emirates said they see business relationship benefit from yuan adoption, compared with 46 percent in France and 40 percent in Australia.

David Pavitt, head of renminbi development for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) at HSBC, says the trend of yuan invoicing started a few years ago with smaller companies leading the way. The success of smaller companies in doing this has led to bigger companies wanting to do the same, and now yuan invoice practices are much more common.

This is because bigger companies find it harder to change their invoice systems, which involve significant infrastructure, accounting systems and staff support, Pavitt said.

The survey also found that outside China, businesses in France and Germany had the highest levels of yuan usage, amounting to 26 percent and 23 percent, respectively.

Among companies using the yuan to settle cross-border business, 59 percent expect to use it more over the next 12 months. About 32 percent of the companies that don't use the yuan also expect to do so in the future, the survey said.