China standardizes bond issuance of overseas institutions

BEIJING -- China has unveiled a set of temporary regulations to standardize the bond issuance by different kinds of overseas institutions on China's interbank bond market.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) and the Ministry of Finance jointly publicized the rules on Tuesday, aiming to push forward the opening up of the country's bond market.

Since international development institutions issued yuan-denominated bonds on China's interbank market for the first time in 2005, overseas institutions have seen more channels to issue bonds on the interbank market and more types of institutions have been allowed to do so, the PBOC said in a statement.

By the end of August, overseas institutions had issued a total of 178.16 billion yuan ($26 billion) of bonds in China's interbank bond market, the data showed.

The temporary measures clarify the requirements for overseas institutions allowed to issued bonds and the application procedures.

Foreign governments, foreign institutions with government functions and international development institutions must possess bond issuance experience and have sound solvency conditions, the measures read.

Overseas financial institutions must have paid-in capital of no less than 10 billion yuan or its equivalent and have reported profits in the past three consecutive years, among other requirements.

"The temporary measures improved the mechanism arrangements for overseas institutions issuing bonds in China's interbank market, linked domestic rules with international ones and are conducive to making China's bond market more internationalized," the statement said.

The central bank will continue to work with other departments to push forward the financial market's opening-up process in a prudent manner, the statement added.