In a move to further facilitate investment by overseas institutions and implement the requirements for high-quality opening-up, the PBC has formulated jointly with the SAFE the Notice on Issues Concerning Further Facilitating Investment by Overseas Institutional Investors in the Interbank Bond Market. The notice allows an overseas entity to conduct non-transactional transfers of its bond holdings between its bond account under the QFII/RQFII item and its bond account under the item of direct investment, and to transfer funds directly between its fund accounts. Moreover, an overseas entity who invests in the interbank bond market through the above-mentioned channels shall need to file with relevant authorities only once. Recently, with the approval of the State Council, the PBC and SAFE have lifted restrictions on RQFII pilot countries and regions, and removed QFII/RQFII quota limits. In principle, policies are basically converging for interbank market investment by overseas institutional investors through different channels.
By further facilitating investment by overseas institutional investors, these reform measures will help enhance the width and depth of China’s financial market opening-up and promote RMB internationalization. Going forward, in line with the requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the PBC and SAFE will continue to roll out new measures for optimizing management so as to achieve high-quality opening-up of financial markets.
