China grants new QDII quotas

China's foreign-exchange regulator on Nov 30 issued a new round of quotas for the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) scheme, an important channel for domestic investors to access overseas assets.

The new QDII quotas valued at $4.296 billion were granted to 23 financial institutions, including fund companies, securities firms, banks, banks' wealth management subsidiaries and trust companies, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

The move echoed the administration's previous efforts on normalizing the issuance of QDII quotas.

The administration has granted three rounds of quotas under the QDII scheme since September, issuing a total of about $12.72 billion worth of quotas to 71 institutions.

After the new issuance, a total of 169 institutions received quotas amounting to roughly $116.7 billion under the QDII scheme, official data shows.

The cross-border capital flows under the QDII scheme, which allows domestic investors to purchase foreign assets, remained stable in recent years, market analysts said, adding that the impact of QDII quota issuance on China's domestic capital market, cross-border capital flows and renminbi exchange rate is generally controllable.

The administration also urged QDII institutions to carry out outbound investment in a prudent and orderly manner, improve product diversity, and manage and control the risks of investing in foreign markets.