Mainland China briefing: SAFE issues another round of QDII quotas

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has issued new quotas of US$9.02 billion to qualified domestic institutional investors (QDII), according to the QDII investment quota approval table dated 13 January 2021 on its website. The total QDII quotas granted by SAFE now stands at US$125.72 billion. Before this latest round, SAFE awarded batches in September and November 2020.

The QDII regime allows qualified financial institutions to invest in foreign securities markets through investment quotas. SAFE announced in October 2020 that it would grant a total of US$10 billion in new quotas under the QDII regime, and would also normalise the schedule of granting QDII quotas. We anticipates that SFAE will award more quotas this year to facilitate the outbound investment regime for domestic investors’ exposure to foreign markets.