China relaxed quotas for qualified foreign institutions to invest in its stock market on Monday, in the country's latest efforts to open up its financial sector. Foreign investors in the country's Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) program will be granted quota limits based on their aggregate assets, said a document of the People's Bank of China and State Administration of Foreign Exchange. Previously, the RQFII quota was subject to approval from financial regulators. Institutions will still have to apply for extra investment quotas, said the document, adding that sovereign wealth funds and central banks were exempt from the restriction. Launched in December 2011, the RQFII program aims to widen investment channels for overseas yuan funds on the Chinese mainland, opening the domestic market more widely and increasing the global use of renminbi, the Chinese currency. By the end of August, China had approved over 510 billion yuan (about 76.3 billion U.S. dollars) for 170 foreign investors under the program.
