Cuba Announces Integration into Chinese Payment System
and to increase in use of Yuan
HAVANA TIMES – Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga, Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, informed government media on September 7, 2025, that the island’s banks will integrate into the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS). The system is designed by China as an alternative to SWIFT for conducting international payments in Chinese yuan, and that the use of this currency will increase in transactions between the two nations.
According to the report, this measure would resolve the “thorny issue of financial transactions” and put the island in “better conditions to process payments without the interference of US blockade actions.”
“It was also announced that our authorities have decided to increase the use of the Chinese yuan in trade and payment transactions in general between China and Cuba,” Perez-Oliva said.
The minister added that “the use of CIPS and the yuan are two factors that provide security and different expectations for companies in both countries and for investments.”
Perez-Oliva assured that after the announcements and the promise to reorganize debts, several Chinese entrepreneurs will continue “working with Cuba despite the difficult circumstances” of the economy in the financial sector.
“They proposed new projects, and entrepreneurs who did not know Cuba (…) showed interest in certain areas of cooperation (…). What stands out is the interest and determination of Chinese business leaders to continue betting on Cuba,” the minister concluded.
This is not the first time the Cuban government has boasted of strong cooperation with the Asian giant, only for the Chinese government to later backtrack. Privately, in recent years, the Chinese have expressed frustration over the lack of transparency in negotiations, delays in payments, and the absence of guarantees for their investments in Cuba.
In October 2024, for example, the Chinese government suspended a contract for the annual purchase of 400,000 tons of sugar. According to the Financial Times, the rupture was motivated by the collapse of the island’s sugar production, which had reached its lowest level in more than a century and barely covered domestic consumption. That situation forced the cancellation of a longstanding agreement.
The report also noted that bilateral trade contracted by one third over the past five years: Chinese exports to Cuba fell from 1.7 billion dollars in 2017 to 1.1 billion in 2022. The decline hit strategic sectors such as biotechnology, premium tobacco, seafood, and nickel.
Now, the minister specified that there are “other identified areas of cooperation” such as “oil exploration and exploitation, mining, and projects related to the recovery of Cuba’s sugar agroindustry.”
Repeated Promises: Alliances That Don’t Materialize
As for integration into CIPS and the increase in yuan use, this is also not the first time Cuba has announced something similar. However, over time, nothing has improved in economic exchange, much less in the lives of the people.
In April 2025, Novikombank, a subsidiary of the Russian state corporation Rostec, signed an agreement with the Central Bank of Cuba to expand the list of Cuban financial institutions that could make payments in rubles through their accounts.
In November 2023, Cuba’s state media announced “a technological rollout” for the use of Russian MIR cards as a means of payment. “The Russian payment system will favor transactions by Russian tourists or entrepreneurs on the island (…); it could become an alternative to bypass the implications of blockades and sanctions, and will strengthen trade ties,” they said.
Professor Luis Rene Fernandez, affiliated with the Center for Research on the International Economy at the University of Havana, notes this alliance would contribute to “increasing Russian tourism in Cuba, with potential revenues from services in hospitality, transportation, and gastronomy.”
“These inflows in rubles will make it possible to pay for everything from hydrocarbons and wheat to debts, without using another currency (…); without a doubt, it is a very useful payment initiative because it escapes sanctions and blockades,” he claimed.
Two years after those statements, the collapse of Russian tourism to the island is evident. Russian travelers experienced a sharp decline through July 2025: 71,797 visitors, just 58.2% of the 123,351 recorded a year earlier, according to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).
Thus, Havana’s bid to join the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) and expand the use of the yuan once again sounds more like a political maneuver than a real solution to the economic crisis that defines daily life on the island.
First published in Spanish by El Toque and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.