The Chinese yuan is now the seventh most frequently used currency for world payments as of January, SWIFT, an international transaction services group, said on Thursday. 

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Based on data gathered by SWIFT, the yuan has 1.39 percent of the total market and has been in the list of the world's most-used currencies or payments across the globe for the past three months. 

Ranking 8th last December, yuan payments rose by 30.6 percent, and has overtaken the Swiss franc to occupy the 7th slot.

The "redback" or yuan has overtaken 22 currencies in just 3 years. It is now behind US dollar which is the most frequently used currency, the euro, sterling, yen, Canadian dollar and Australian dollar, according to the report.

Although the yuan's growth is almost 6 times more than the growth for all currencies for payment which was at 4.8 percent in January, yuan payments still remain to be mainly concentrated in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong had 73 percent of the market share. The UK, Singapore, Taiwan, the US, France and Australia followed in that order.

Michael Moon, SWIFT's Asia Pacific director of payments markets, said, "Looking at the first month of 2014, which was the highest payments value recorded for yuan so far, it is clear that the yuan is on its way to remaining a top 10 currency for global payments."

China is taking bolder steps to make the yuan an international currency by introducing reforms in domestic markets, and by adopting pilot programs meant to give the yuan more freedom of movement outside China.

The yuan is fast becoming a currency favored by international investors because of its low-risk yet high yield character.  China's Central Bank however in the past weeks has pushed to lower the exchange rate in an effort to put an end to capital inflows that are speculative in nature.