TAIPEI -- Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou said Friday that the currency clearing memorandum signed between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland will promote cross-Strait financial cooperation.

Earlier in the day, a mainland spokesman in Beijing said the mainland and Taiwan on Friday signed a memorandum on currency clearing, paving the way for a cross-Strait currency clearing mechanism.

This is another important step for cross-Strait financial cooperation, said Yang Yi, spokesman with the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, in a statement to Xinhua.

In Taipei, Taiwanese monetary authorities made a similar statement announcing the signing of the memorandum.

"It is a new development, which I believe will greatly help cross-Strait financial cooperation," Ma told reporters after the announcement.

Perng Fai-nan, head of Taiwan's monetary authorities, told reporters that the signing of the memorandum was not only a follow-up move to a broader cross-Strait financial agreement signed in 2009, but also marked a milestone in cooperation between the two monetary authorities.

He added that the memorandum was a starting point for cross-Strait currency settlement, and both sides will engage in further negotiations to iron out the details of the mechanism.

According to him, the deal will facilitate cross-Strait trade and investment, help Taiwan's financial institutions roll out yuan-denominated financial products and allow international banks to participate in developing an off-shore yuan center in Taiwan.

Financial institutions from both sides have long called for a direct clearing system between banks across the Strait, instead of via Hong Kong, and the expansion of services on remittance.

The deal was believed to be of particular importance as cross-Strait trade and investment ties have developed rapidly in recent years.

According to official figures on the mainland, cross-Strait trade reached 160.03 billion U.S. dollars in 2011, marking a year-on-year increase of 10.1 percent.

Meanwhile, by the end of last year, the mainland had approved a total of 85,772 investment projects from Taiwan and the actual funds used reached 54.2 billion U.S. dollars.

The memorandum will take effect in 60 days and the two sides are also working toward an eventual currency swap deal.

The memorandum with Taiwan is part of a massive plan of the Chinese mainland to expand the use of its currency overseas.

It has signed numerous currency deals with trade partners across the world, including the Republic of Korea, Japan, Singapore and Britain, to facilitate cross-border trade and investment.

Many economies are eager to ink currency deals with the mainland to further take advantage of the trade and investment opportunities in the mainland, which is the world's second-largest economy and has maintained strong economic growth for more than three decades.

These deals are also expected to reduce the world's heavy reliance on the U.S. dollar.

The greenback remains the dominant currency of the global reserve system and is widely used in trade and financial deals around the world, but it has also seen increasing volatility as the United States has struggled to emerge from a severe financial and economic crisis in the past five years.