The story below is about a proposal to use “yuan” rather than “renminbi” (which I think is odd, because as far as I know the official name of the PRC currency is and has always been “yuan”).
政协委员：人民币应更名为中国元
http://www.sina.com.cn 2005年03月10日11:56 南方都市报本报讯 已沿用57年的“人民币”能不能更名为“中国元”？在正在召开的全国政协十届三次会议上，全国政协委员伍龙章提出这一建议，引起关注。他认为，这一更名可以进一步提高人民币在全球的知名度和认可度。
The interesting part, from the standpoint of this site, is the final paragraph:
增强中国货币世界认可度
目前人民币(RenMinBi Yuan)简写为RMB￥，其简写用的是人民币汉语拼音开头字母组合，标准货币符号为CNY。而香港元(HongKong Dollar)简写为HK＄，标准货币符号为HKD；澳门元(Macao Pataca)简写为Pat或P，标准货币符号为MOP；新台币(New TaiWan Dollar)简写为(NT＄)，标准货币TWD。但是因为汉语拼音在世界范围内影响力较小，不利于中国货币走向世界、成为自由兑换币为世人所认识。为此，如将“人民币元”改为“中国元”，就可以与香港、澳门和台湾货币相衔接，采用“CHINA Dollar”简写为“CN＄”，与国际货币简写标识接轨，其简写正好与我国货币在国际金融市场上现行的标准货币符号 “CNY”相接近。
English rules all, it seems.
Note also the annoying and counterproductive InTerCaPiTaLiZaTion in “RenMinBi” and even “TaiWan”! It pains me to see that China also seems to have taken up this awful, awful practice.
The currency is renminbi. The main unit is the yuan. A parallel is Bitish Sterling with the the Pound as the main unit.