Stock markets opening to foreigners

China will further open its stock markets by allowing foreign individuals to have onshore securities accounts, the country’s top securities regulator said on Sunday.

Foreigners who work on the Chinese mainland and those who work overseas for A-share listed companies and participate in the company’s equity benefit plan will be allowed to open A-shares securities accounts, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement.

Foreign individual investors are qualified for such an arrangement if they are from countries and regions where the local securities regulatory agencies have signed memorandums of understanding with the CSRC. So far, 62 countries and regions have cooperative MOUs with the CSRC.

The move was another sign of China’s willingness to further liberalize its capital markets and to grant foreign investors greater access to the country’s 50 trillion yuan ($7.6 trillion) A-share market, said Dong Dengxin, a finance professor at Wuhan University of Science and Technology.