Foreign banks welcome to access local financial services market

China will further open up its banking sector to foreign investments. It will ease restrictions on foreign banks so they could have easier access to the local market and start business operations in the country, according to the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

The nation's top banking regulator said it will launch various policies and scrap others toward this end. The requirement that foreign banks should operate for more than one year before they seek to conduct renminbi business will be abolished.

By lowering the threshold for foreign banks to start renminbi business, China will take a step forward to promote the international use of its currency, said a foreign bank executive who sought anonymity because he is not authorized to speak on record.