Foreign investors given greater access to derivatives

Financial regulators are contemplating the changes to make China's derivatives market more attractive to foreign investors, as part of the development plan for the capital market.

China will actively and steadily ease access to the derivatives market and allow overseas institutions to hold stakes in Chinese companies, Jiang Yang, vice chair of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, was quoted as saying on Tuesday in Shenzhen, by the China Securities Journal.

Competitive domestic players are also encouraged to expand their overseas presence, including in the derivatives business, Jiang added.

The derivatives market in China is largely isolated from overseas investors. Foreign investors trade China's capital market mainly through the qualified foreign institutional investor (QFII) scheme with a limited quota.

More derivative products such as crude oil futures, a commodity of "strategic significance", will be introduced in to diversify the market, according to Jiang.

Jiang said equity market regulators will work for specific derivatives legislation to protect market activities.

Conditions for such legislation are "ripe," said Wu Xiaoling, former head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, on the same occasion.