CANADA has been discussing with Chinese banks and other active market participants over the possibility of turning Toronto into the first North American hub for offshore yuan.

The Bank of Canada, the central bank, the Department of Finance, the top five banks in the country, HSBC, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China met last Friday to discuss the matter, according to a bank source who is aware of the matter.

The meeting agreed to promote Toronto to become an offshore yuan hub competing for offshore yuan with existing cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore, London and Taiwan.

Hong Kong has the lion's share of the offshore yuan market but analysts argued that Singapore could be a formidable rival to Hong Kong as trade between the mainland and its Southeast Asian neighbors expands.

London, the only yuan hub in Europe, holds 11 percent of the market similar to Singapore's share, according to Standard Chartered Bank's latest report on Renminbi Globalization Index, a monthly measure of global yuan activities.