Foreign investors target opportunities through China’s market opening
Cross-border investment flows into China will receive a boost from the removal of foreign investor quota restrictions under the Qualified Foreign Investor (QFI) programme and reforms to the CIBM Direct scheme for onshore bond investments.
These are key findings of
Funds Europe’s China Investor Survey 2020, conducted in partnership with Standard Chartered.
With Chinese regulators advancing a wide array of policy proposals designed to enhance market access and to improve market efficiency, the survey asked respondents to prioritise which of these reforms will have the greatest impact on their business.
Survey participants were asked to score each policy proposal as high, medium or low priority. These were then ranked in order on the basis of a weighted-arithmetic mean score, with a higher score indicating that a factor holds greater importance to respondents (fig 1).
Ease of access to China a priority for investors says Funds Europe survey
It is becoming easier for foreign investors to access the Chinese market, both through onshore and offshore channels, according to
Funds Europe’sChina Investor survey 2020 conducted in partnership with Standard Chartered.
This has been a prime factor driving respondents’ decisions to increase their investment flows into China. Some 69% highlight ease of access to onshore channels (the Qualified Foreign Investor, or ‘QFI’) and 63% highlight ease of access through offshore channels (such as Stock Connect and Bond Connect) as being key to driving their investment strategies in the Chinese market.
China further opens up domestic financial market for foreign investment China’s new QFI investment scheme is set to make it easier and more streamlined to gain access to its capital markets, providing a new set of opportunities for foreign investors.
Sponsored by China Construction Bank (CCB)
Aiming to boost foreign investor engagement with China’s domestic capital markets, China has announced a series of rules for the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) and RMB QFII (RQFII) programmes.
The QFII and RQFII have now been integrated into one Qualified Foreign Investor (QFI) scheme. China’s capital markets regulators released the new Measures and implementary provisions for QFI on 25 September, 2020. They have attracted a high number of global investors since these new rules came into effect on 1 November, 2020.