CHINA: SAFE announces changes to China QFII regime

Tuesday December 18 2012

On 14th December the State Administration of Foreign Exchange announced changes to China Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) regime as detailed in SAFE Notice No. 1 of 2009.

Under the amended rules, sovereign funds, central banks and monetary authorities can now exceed the $1 billion limit that applies to other qualified foreign institutional investors.

In addition, rules on repatriation have been relaxed. QFIIs can repatriate their principal and investment returns after a lock-up period ends, however, the monthly net remittances cannot exceed 20 percent of their total onshore assets as of the previous year.

Open-ended funds can now remit funds on a weekly basis rather than monthly under the previous draft.

The rules are currently only available in Chinese – click here to view.