China's central bank said Friday that all companies qualified for foreign trade activities can conduct cross-border export settlement in yuan.

The People's Bank of China said in a statement on its website that China expanded cross-border trade settlement in yuan to cover all exporters in order to "meet market demand and make foreign trade more free and convenient."

To boost the internationalization of yuan and facilitate trade, China launched a pilot program to allow 365 companies to conduct cross-border trade settlement in yuan in July 2009.

It expanded the pilot program to 20 provincial regions in June 2010, and to all parts of the country in August 2011.

China's cross-border trade settlement in yuan under current accounts hit 2.58 trillion yuan (409.65 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of 2011, according to data from the central bank.