More foreign institutions allowed on China's forex market

BEIJING -- China's central bank allowed more overseas central banks and similar institutions to enter the country's inter-bank foreign exchange market on Tuesday.

Seven such institutions completed registration with the China Foreign Exchange Trading System, which signaled their official access to the Chinese forex market, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said on its website.

The move brought the total number of central banks and similar institutions on the market to 14 and will help steadily promote the openness of the market, the PBOC said.

China first opened its inter-bank forex market to foreign central banks (monetary authorities), international financial institutions and sovereign wealth funds in November, when seven such institutions were allowed to enter the market.

The seven newcomers are the Reserve Bank of India, the Bank of Korea, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Bank Indonesia, the Bank of Thailand, the Bank for International Settlement, and the International Finance Corporation.

Those institutions can directly participate in the inter-bank forex market as foreign members, use existing inter-bank forex market members as their agents, or entrust the PBOC as their agent.

They will be allowed to conduct renminbi and foreign exchange trading of one or more traded forex products, including spots, forwards, swaps and options.