US$4.8bn QDII quotas approved

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has given Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the mainland subsidiary of Bank of East Asia approval to buy foreign exchange worth US$4.8 billion dollars on behalf of their clients for overseas investment. It is the first such approval under the country's qualified domestic institutional investors (QDII) program, which allows mainland institutions and residents to entrust mainland commercial banks to invest a certain amount of money in financial products overseas. Insurance institutions may invest part of their assets in overseas fixed-income products and money-market products. The three banks received US$2.5 billion, US$2 billion and US$300 million quotas, respectively. Applications from China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications and HSBC are currently being considered, potentially taking total quotas to over US$10 billion.