Yi Gang (易纲), recently appointed governor of the Chinese central bank, has outlined six measures for further opening China’s financial sector that are scheduled for implementation over the next several marks.
Yi unveiled the six measures at the “Monetary Policy Normalisation” forum held on 11 April at the 2018 Boao Forum for Asia held in Hainan province.
1.Cancellation of restrictions on foreign invested equity percentages for banks and financial asset management companies. Domestic and external capital will be treated equally, and foreign banks will be permitted to establish branches and subsidiaries in China simultaneously.
2. An increase in the ceiling on foreign invested equity percentages for securities companies, fund management companies, futures companies and life insurance companies to 51%, followed by the removal of restrictions after three years.
3. Regulators will no longer require that at least one of the domestic shareholders of joint venture securities companies be a securities company.
4. In order to further improve the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect initiative, starting from 1 May the daily volume for the initiative will be increased four-fold, and its annual amount will be lifted to 52 billion yuan from 13 billion yuan.
5. Foreign investors who satisfy conditions will be permitted to engage in insurance agency operations and insurance assessing operations.
6. Expansion of the business scope for foreign insurance brokerage companies, to make it consistent with that for domestic entities.
