QFII granted to private bank for first time

首家外資私人銀行QFII昨日獲批

Swiss-based private banking group Julius Baer announced it had been granted a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) quota of US$100-million by China's foreign exchange regulator.

Julius Baer was granted the QFII license last December and is the first and only private bank to acquire one. The license clears the way for the bank to buy Chinese stocks and bonds under the QFII scheme.

Julius Baer said it plans to launch a China Fund, which will invest in A and H shares.

"Until now, clients have had very limited direct access to this trend, since few China stocks have overseas listings. We can now offer clients a full range of products either directly from Julius Baer or from numerous external parties," said Kenneth Ho, head of Products Asia Pacific.

Julius Baer has stepped up efforts to expand its presence in China. The Swiss bank is expected to open representative offices in Shanghai and a trust company in Singapore within the year, pending government approvals. In March 2011, the bank expanded its RMB product offerings, adding RMB conversion services, savings and fixed deposit accounts, RMB-denominated unit trusts, currency linked investments and bonds.

China launched the QFII scheme in 2003 and has granted a total of US$20 billion in quotas to over 100 foreign institutions including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.

昨日，私人銀行集團瑞士寶盛銀行宣布，經中國國家外匯管理局審批，獲得1億美元合格境外機構投資者（QFII）投資額度。

瑞士寶盛于2010年12月獲得國家外匯管理局頒發的QFII牌照，至今仍是唯一一家擁有該牌照的私人銀行，其客戶可參與中國內地股票和債券市場。

該行計劃推出中國基金，投資于A股和H股市場。

“到目前為止，客戶直投中國市場的渠道還非常有限，因為國外上市的中國企業還是比較少。現在我們可以為客戶提供全面的產品和服務，有些是我們自有產品，也有很多是與第三方合作的產品。”瑞士寶盛亞太區產品主管Kenneth Ho在公告中說到。

瑞士寶盛加大在中國市場擴張力度，計劃于今年內在上海設立代表辦事處以及成立新加坡信托公司，上述計劃均有待監管機構的批準。2011年3月，瑞士寶盛銀行擴大了人民幣產品系列，增加了在香港及新加坡的人民幣兌換服務、儲蓄和定期存款賬戶、人民幣計價的單位信托基金，以及貨幣掛鉤投資和債券等。

2003年，中國引入QFII制度，至今共批準包括高盛、花旗銀行和摩根士丹利等百余家外國機構投資額度200億美元左右。