The central government plans to allow domestic trust firms to take part in the qualified domestic institutional investor scheme as part of efforts to widen its scope and attract funds to invest in overseas markets.
The China Banking Regulatory Commission and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange issued a joint statement yesterday saying that trust firms in the mainland would be allowed to apply for QDII quotas.
The statement was released after Liu Mingkang, the chairman of the commission, said the QDII scope would be further expanded this year to include investments in more types of products.
The People's Bank of China issued rules on QDII in April last year, allowing commercial banks to convert yuan for overseas investments, but with the booming stock markets and the yuan's rising value, QDII products have not been popular.
Mr Liu said after a meeting with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority that the QDII scheme had been running well and more than five billion yuan worth of funds had been invested overseas so far.
He said the mainland authorities were planning to enlarge the scheme, including expansion of quotas and investment products qualified companies could buy.
