The QDII scheme finally comes of age with the news that China's largest mutual fund company, China Asset Management, plans to launch its first qualified domestic institutional investor fund next month to raise up to 10bn yuan...   more »

In a further sign of growing openness in China's financial markets, private investors will be able to buy foreign securities for the first time under new scheme launched yesterday. The move is designed to help reduce the trade frictions caused by China's swelling foreign reserves by making it easier for investors to invest overseas...   more »

Xinhua Finance, the largest provider of financial information in China, has signed an exclusive agreement with Belgian software house Fermat to distribute and support Fermat's range of Basel II, risk and performance management software solutions in mainland China...   more »

Long before the current private equity bandwagon started to roll, British pioneer 3i was quietly funding unknown start-ups. It entered the Chinese market in 2001 and has invested in around ten companies including Focus Media, which had a successful Nasdaq IPO. The firm is slooking to invest in four to five Chinese companies this year...   more »

Liberty Mutual Group, the US insurer, has won approval from regulators to incorporate locally in Chongqing, the megacity in western China. The firm launched its Chongqing branch in 2004, making it the first foreign insurer to expand non-life insurance business to China's relatively unexplored western region...   more »

Despite the much-vaunted opening of China's financial markets to foreign firms, London Asia Capital, the Asia-focussed investment bank, says the going has got much tougher. So much so that it has scrapped plans to build a merchant banking business on the mainland, citing increased regulations as the principal reason...   more »

It may be a small country but Iceland has big ambitions in China. Icelandic energy company Enex, which is working on the world's largest geothermal district heating project in Xianyang, while Glitnir, Iceland's biggest bank, is helping Icelandic businesses tap into China's raging economy...   more »

NYSE-listed Xinhua Finance Media, the Chinese media company, has bought Convey Advertising Company. It is a shrewd move given XFMedia's focus on "high net worth" individuals as Convey owns billboard sites passed by millions of Chinese on their way to the prime shopping and gambling destinations of HK and Macau...   more »

[INTERVIEW] The size and growth potential of China's consumer banking market has attracted many foreign players. But according to a new survey commissioned by First Data International, foreign banks would be wise to take the long-term view on China as the short-term outlook for profits in these markets is less certain...   more »

China has expanded its Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) programme in a bid to encourage more domestic investors to look overseas. Until now, only banks and insurance companies have been eligible for the QDII programme and they were saddled with a restrictive investment remit originally limited to low-risk investments like bonds...   more »