Some of the small steps China is making towards internationalising its currency are so so small that they don’t get noticed until well after the event.

And so it is with a move by the Bank of China, the country’s fourth-largest lender by assets, to offer limited renminbi deposit services to personal banking customers at its London, New York, Canadian and Southeast Asian branches.

The “news” of the first such facility outside mainland China and Hong Kong made headlines on Wednesday. But in fact, as the bank told beyondbrics, the service was introduced nearly a year ago, in February 2010. A quiet move, it may have been, but it is playing its part in what could amount to a revolution in international finance if the Rmb eventually adopts what the Chinese authorities see as its rightful place on the global stage.