Yicai Global) Oct. 27 -- Shenzhen Stock Exchange is planning to amalgamate its main board and its small and medium-enterprise board in order to streamline trading on the world’s eighth largest bourse, an insider at China’s securities regulator told Yicai Global.

The move is part of the China Securities Regulatory Commission’s continuous upgrading of the country’s capital markets. Business publication Caixin was the first to break the news earlier today. 

The SME board, which targets firms with small equity scale but good growth potential, has almost the same listing requirements as the main board. Both require continuous profits for more than three years.

Once combined, the SSE would be left with its main board and its Nasdaq-style ChiNext board for tech start-ups. The latter switched to a registration-based initial public offering system earlier this year, as opposed to the usual approval-based IPO, in an attempt to simplify and speed up listings.

Editor: Kim Taylor