Ping An granted QDII quota

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission has approved Ping An Insurance's application to invest on the Hong Kong stock market, making the company the first insurer to earn a quota under the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) program, Economic Observer reported (in Chinese). Ping An, China's second-largest insurance company, will be allowed to invest up to 5% of its total 2006 assets on the Hong Kong market, putting its limit at about US$3.3 billion. The CIRC has yet to release detailed regulations on how Chinese insurers may invest under the QDII scheme, the newspaper reported, citing an unnamed source.