The ban on foreign investment into China's brokerage sector has been extended until next August, the regulator has decided, according to a South China Morning Post report. By this point China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) hopes to have completed restructuring the best of the country's 108 brokerages with the worst performers closed down or merged with competitors. The reforms were originally scheduled to be finished by the end of this year. The National Development and Reform Commission yesterday released details of the 11th Five-Year Plan which stressed the importance of allowing foreign strategic investors in the sector "once the state shareholding reforms are completely finished". Goldman Sachs is the only foreign investment bank to have accessed the lucrative brokerage sector – using a complex arrangement with joint venture partner Gao Hua Securities to evade the ban on foreign entry – although UBS is set to gain access through a strategic investment in Beijing Securities.
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