The Chinese unit of US banking giant Citigroup has cinched approval from regulators to provide custody services for securities investment funds.
Citibank (China) obtained its “License to Engage in Securities Futures Operations” (经营证券期货业务许可证) on 29 July from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
Citibank said that it now on track to provide securities investment fund custody services for publicly offered and privately offered funds in China.
The move makes Citibank the first international custody bank to obtain approval to provide custody services from Chinese regulators.
“We are very happy to be able to help global customers to participate in the ongoing opening up of China’s capital market,” said Lin Yuhua (林钰华), CEO of Citibank (China).
“We look for to bringing Citigroup’s global platform and best practices to the Chinese market, and fully employing its advantages in the area of cross-border services, providing domestic and overseas clients with unified, global services standards.”
Citibank currently holds permissions to engage in operations as a qualified foreign institution investor (QFII) and a renminbi QFII (RQFII), as well as under the China Interbank Market Direct scheme.
At the end of last year Citibank successfully helped global investors to take part in the first margin securities lending transactions and refinancing securities lending transactions on the Chinese A-share market.
