China officially eases foreign ownership curbs in banking, more opening-up to come soon

China has officially eased foreign ownership curbs in the banking sector, indicating that the country is taking steady steps to further open its financial sector, and experts predicted that there would be more measures to be implemented amid the country's strong determination to reform.

China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) announced on Thursday that the country will ease limits on foreign ownership in all Chinese-invested banks and financial asset management firms, starting from Thursday, and will equalize foreign investors' equity shares in the sector.

"The regulation creates a unified, fair and transparent environment for Chinese and foreign capital in the sector, which could also help maintain the stability and continuity of financial supervision," according to a report from domestic news site cnstock.com, which cited an official.

Experts predicted that as part of the country's broader opening-up push, China will surely gradually implement policies to let foreign investors enter its trust, financial leasing, auto finance, money brokerage, and consumer finance sectors.

Dong Ximiao, a research fellow with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Thursday that the supply-side structural reform will also help promote the efficiency and quality of the banking system but the start of this policy was scheduled long time ago, and was not affected by the recent unstable external environment.

"But China should continuously improve its financial supervision system, and learn from foreign countries, in a bid to ensure its regulatory ability is compatible with its opening-up level," Dong said.

Dong noted that when opening up further to foreign countries, China also has to take the opportunity of yuan internalization and construction of the Belt and Road initiative, to "go out" and formalize a new two-way opening development mode and further improve the nation's financial competence.