China Loosens Rules to Boost Foreign Banks' Access
Liao Shumin
DATE:  Dec 26 2019
/ SOURCE:  yicai
China Loosens Rules to Boost Foreign Banks' Access China Loosens Rules to Boost Foreign Banks' Access

(Yicai Global) Dec. 26 -- China's main banking and insurance regulator has revised its rules for foreign-funded lenders to increase their access to the world's second-biggest economy with an expected stimulating effect.

The altered rules expand the range of overseas banks' commercial services, cancel the minimum asset requirement, and reduce red tape in cross-border yuan settlement, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said in a statement released on its website yesterday.

Foreign banks used to be required to have USD20 billion in assets to set up mainland branches that could not underwrite local bonds and needed to wait for at least a year before being able to conduct renminbi business.

Overseas lenders' mainland branches can conduct cross-border business collaboration with their parents to provide services in bond issuance, listing, as well as mergers and acquisitions, while working in accordance with the law, the CBIRC wrote. They should report their annual duties and profit-sharing mechanisms every first quarter, it added.

The amended regulation strives to encourage more foreign investment in China, and enhance the banking sector's competitiveness, according to the CBIRC. 

Editor: Emmi Laine 

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Keywords:   Foreign Banks