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China approves two more QFIIs
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-10-21 16:17
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has formally approved
applications from France's Banque de I'Indochine et de Suez and Power Corp of
Canada for qualified foreign institutional investor (QFII) licenses.
To date, a total of 27 foreign banks or financial institutions have been
granted QFII status.
Power Corp. is a well-known investment management and holding company in
North America, engaging mainly in financial asset management and life insurance
operations. Its Asia subsidiary Power Pacific Ltd is engaged in investment
service in China.
Power is also the fourth foreign asset management company to get QFII
qualification in China. The previous three are Nikko Asset Management, Templeton
Asset Management and Invesco Asset Management.
Headquartered in Paris, Banque Indosuez is the largest commercial bank in
France. Its main businesses cover syndicate loans, debt issues, call loans,
export credits and foreign exchange trading.
Under the QFII program, the French commercial bank and the Canadian
diversified management and holding company will be allowed to invest in the
yuan-denominated bond and A-share markets in the Chinese mainland.
The two new QFIIs are yet to get the approval from the State Administration
of Foreign Exchange for investment quota.
The State Administration of Foreign Exchange has so far approved investment
quotas totaling US$2.85 billion applied by 19 QFIIs.
Since September, the authorities have increased the pace to approve QFIIs and
their investment quotas.
Approved QFIIs include HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup.
An informed source said on September 23 that China is likely to expand the
scale of experiment in the qualified foreign institutional investor (QFII)
system, or even put an end to the experiment within a short period for
implementation on a full scale.
The source said the related departments are summarizing the experiences of
the experiment in the previous period, and will submit a report on this to the
State Council.
If this report is adopted by the State Council, the QFII experiment starting
from May last year may come to an end and enter a new period of population, the
source said.
A special team has been set up to take charge of the work for improving the
QFII experiment, whose task includes revision of the Interim Rules for
Administration of Securities Investment in the Territory of Qualified Foreign
Institutional Investors issued by the China Securities Regulatory Commission and
the People's Bank of China and effective on December 1, 2002.
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