China - January 27, 2025 Foreign financial institutions expanding their operations in China (Voice_over) China has announced additional measures to encourage foreign investment into the country including policies to improve international companies' foreign currency fund pool operations. Companies like Singapore-based DBS Group are benefiting from the initiatives as it recently obtained regulatory approval to increase its stake in DBS Securities China from 51 percent to 91. (Sound_bite) Zheng Sizhen, CEO, DBS China: "The further opening-up of the financial market is a great boost for foreign financial institutions." (Voice_over) At the start of this year, Standard Chartered Bank was approved to become the first foreign bank to issue credit-linked notes in China. The head of Transaction Banking at Standard Chartered Bank in China called the policy enhancements "gifts" because they take into account the suggestions of foreign enterprises. (Sound_bite) Zhang Ying, Head, Transaction Banking, Standard Chartered Bank (China): "At the end of last year, we called the policy adjustment 'New Year's gift'. It was such a delight that many of the optimization policies were those previously suggested by foreign enterprises and were quickly incorporated." (Voice_over) According to data from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, as of November 9 last year, the number of qualified foreign institutional investors had expanded to roughly 858. [Restriction: No access Chinese mainland]