Foreign central banks allowed on China's forex market

The first batch of overseas central banks and similar institutions have been allowed to enter China's inter-bank foreign exchange market, China's central bank said Wednesday.

Seven such institutions have completed registration with the China Foreign Exchange Trading System, which signal their official access into the Chinese market, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said on its website.

"This will contribute to greater openness of the Chinese foreign exchange market," the PBOC said.

The institutions are the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Reserve Bank of Australia, Hungarian National Bank, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Development Association, World Bank Group Trust Funds, and GIC Private Limited.

This group covers three categories of institutions - foreign central banks (monetary authorities), international financial institutions and sovereign wealth funds.

Those institutions can directly participate in the inter-bank forex market as foreign members, use existing inter-bank forex market members as their agents, or entrust the PBOC as their agent.

They will be allowed to conduct renminbi and foreign exchange trading of one or more traded forex products, including spots, forwards, swaps and options. Endi