China Plans 12 New Measures to Open up Banking, Insurance Sectors

China is taking major steps to further open its $44 trillion financial sector to global investors. On May 1, 2019, Guo Shuqing, the chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, or CBIRC, said that the financial regulator will soon be introducing 12 new measures that are intended to help stimulate market vitality and improve the management and competitiveness of the financial industry. The new measures also include a number of initiatives to make it easier for foreign banks and insurance companies to invest in China's finance services sector.

Smaller foreign investors will be allowed. The CBIRC intends to cancel the current requirement for foreign banks to have $10 billion in assets before being allowed to set up a legal person entity in the country, and the $20 billion minimum assets requirement to establish a branch will also go. The approval procedures for foreign banks to conduct renminbi business will also be removed. Restrictions on Chinese shareholders in joint-venture banks will be eased, and the requirement that the sole or major Chinese shareholder should be a financial institution will be abolished.