Rapidly rising renminbi transaction volumes are supporting London's ambition of becoming the Western world's offshore yuan center, according to figures released on Thursday by the City of London Corp.

Trade finance transactions using the Chinese currency totaled 27.94 billion yuan ($4.61 billion) in the first half of 2013, up from 13.8 billion yuan a year earlier.

Daily average trading volume of renminbi-related foreign exchange products expanded to $22.3 billion, up from $11.6 billion.