The People's Bank of China (PBC) announced on February 19 that China would continue to expand the cross-border use of the yuan this year.

The central bank will gradually upgrade the yuan formation mechanism and expand the exchange rate's floating range in an orderly way.

The statement came after Shanghai free trade zone (FTZ) announced on February 18 that five third-party payment firms have been approved to handle yuan-denominated cross-border payments in the zone.

The Shanghai Office of the PBC said that Allinpay, 99Bill, ChinaPay, Dongfang Electronics and Shengpay are now allowed to process cross-border payments in the renminbi in the FTZ.

The Bank of China cross-border renminbi index hit a record high of 228 in the fourth quarter of 2013.

The yuan's cross-border settlement was 3.64 trillion yuan ($597 billion) in the first 11 months of 2013, 350 times that in 2009, the PBC said at a work-planning meeting in January.