China to push opening-up in capital markets

SHANGHAI - China will continue to push opening-up in the capital market to better serve the country's economic development and broader opening-up strategy, a central bank official said Thursday.

"China will further open up some non-convertible items under the capital account, and those already convertible will see tradings more liberalized," said Pan Gongsheng, deputy head of the People's Bank of China, at a forum in Shanghai.

Two-way openness will be promoted in the financial market, with increasing product supplies such as China Depositary Receipts, Panda bonds and commodity futures, according to Pan, who also heads the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

Rules on qualified institutional investors will be further improved and the scope of connectivity programs will be widened, Pan said, adding China would support domestic financial institutions to better engage in the international market.

Regulators will debate whether to allow Chinese institutions to enter offshore RMB markets as well as whether to permit securities and futures firms to conduct cross-border businesses.

The remarks followed a central bank announcement Tuesday to ease restrictions on foreign institutional investors in a step to further open its financial market.

Regulators decided to scrap a rule that limited the amount of funds a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) could take out of the mainland every month at 20 percent of its mainland assets as of the end of the previous year.

The requirements for a three-month capital lock-up period for QFII and RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) redemptions will be removed, according to the new rules effective immediately.

At the forum, Pan also promised to allow the market to play a decisive role in the exchange rate formation mechanism and push for global use of the RMB.