Financial centres and RMB internationalisation prospects for a post-American monetary order?

China’s rise in global finance since the 2008 crisis has been accompanied by increasing uncertainty about the future. In this chapter I draw upon concepts from constructivist political economy and financial geography, conceptualising the monetary system as one that involves both state-led and market-dominated processes of change. I argue that as spatially embedded sites of ideational contestation, international financial centres (IFCs) provide a crucial lens through which to perceive and analyse these cleavages. I illustrate these contentions through a brief empirical study of Hong Kong and London as two key offshore sites for RMB-denominated market development and as sites of associated agency and ideational contestation. In opening up new pathways for understanding trajectories of financial change, this chapter thereby contributes to our understanding of the conditions under which US monetary dominance might be expected to weaken in the years to come.