Insurance, banking open to foreign investment

China has revised a few regulations that will further expose its insurance and banking industries to foreign investment.

The decision regarding revisions to the regulations on management of foreign-invested insurance and of banking firms has been authorized by the State Council and will be implemented immediately on the date of their release, a statement said recently.

A Xinhua report said that the revisions, which are aimed at providing better legal guarantee to opening up the country’s insurance and banking sectors to overseas investors, include improving the supervision over foreign banks’ local branches and lifting previous restrictions on company establishment, shareholder status and business expansion.

Foreign insurance groups are now allowed to set up foreign-funded insurance firms in the Chinese mainland, while overseas financial institutions can be shareholders of foreign-funded insurance firms.

Meanwhile, the floor limit for foreign bank branches in the mainland to take Chinese citizens’ time deposit has been lowered from CNY1 million to CNY500,000.

The country’s securities regulator recently announced a clear timetable for allowing full foreign ownership of financial service companies covering the sectors of fund management, brokerage and futures.