RQFII quota expands to 270b yuan

Regulators have raised the Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor quota by 200 billion yuan ($32 billion) from the current 70 billion yuan, according to Guo Shuqing, head of China Securities Regulatory Commission, China Securities Journal reported on Tuesday.

People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchanges have already agreed to increase the quota after a request by the authorities in Hong Kong where most offshore yuan funds are raised, according to Guo.

He added departments are preparing detailed rules for the RQFII quota expansion, which will be soon released.

China launched the pilot program for RQFII at the end of 2011. Currently the total quota of RQFII is 70 billion yuan.

As for the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor program, regulators have agreed to expand the quota if the current 80 billion yuan limit is reached. The limit of the investment volume for each investor, which is $800 million, may also be raised, according to Guo.

As many as 192 foreign institutions had been given a quota of $33.6 billion in total, according to statistics provided by the State Administration of Foreign Exchanges.