China details opening up measures in financial sector

China’s newly appointed central bank governor Yi Gang has announced a slew of reform measures regarding the foreign capital entering China’s financial market. This comes a day after President Xi Jinping’s speech on the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference.

The newly announced measures include canceling foreign capital’s holding ceiling in establishing commercial banks; raising ceiling of foreign holdings in stock brokerages to 51%, which will be lifted three years later; quadrupling current quota of mainland Hong Kong stock connect. Majority of these measures are expected to be implemented before June 2018.

The governor also says the central bank is also working on other opening up measures in the financial sector, such as allowing foreign commercial banks to enter more businesses, like financial leasing and trust. Moreover, with the presence of deputy chief at China’s securities regulator Fang Xinghai, Yi says the Shanghai London stock connect is expected to be launched within 2018.

But the central bank governor also says regulation in the financial sector will also step up, and will be in accordance with the opening up in the industry.

(CGTN)