China grants GIC licence to invest in renminbi-denominated mainland assets: report

China's securities regulator has handed out a renminbi qualified foreign institutional investor (RFQII) licence to Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd, AsianInvestor reported on Friday. -- PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
China's securities regulator has handed out a renminbi qualified foreign institutional investor (RFQII) licence to Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd, AsianInvestor reported on Friday. -- PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

SINGAPORE - China's securities regulator has handed out a renminbi qualified foreign institutional investor (RFQII) licence to Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd, AsianInvestor reported on Friday.

It was among 10 new licences announced late Thursday by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), five of which went to Korean asset managers and two more to Singapore-incorporated entities, CSAM Asset Management and Neuberger Berman Singapore.

Previously, there were 10 Singapore holders of RQFII permits including Fullerton Fund Management, a unit of Singapore state investment company, Temasek Holdings.

Beijing introduced the RQFII programme in 2011 to provide another way for foreign investors to participate in inest in mainland securities, as part of its efforts to speed up the liberalisation of of its currency and financual markets.

Unlike an earlier programme - qualified institutional investors or QFII - the RFQII licence allows the holder to use renminbi to purchase securities insteas of the foreign home currency.

Previously the RQFII programme was limited to only Hong Kong subsidiaries of Chinese financial institutions, but China last year began extending it to more Hong Kong banks and asset managers and then to financial institutions in London, Paris, Singapore and Taiwan.

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