BEIJING, 23 October (Xinhua) — On Friday, the Chinese Securities Regulatory Authority approved Citigroup’s plan to establish a 100 per cent securities company in the country, the final step in the country’s broader commitment to further opening the financial sector to foreign institutions.
This approval allows the U.S. company to offer capital market services in China, including stock brokerage, securities investment consulting, the firm taking of securities, and trading of securities on own account, said the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) in a press release.
The company, Citigroup Securities (China) Company Limited, will be registered in Shanghai, with a share capital of 1.2 billion yuan (approximately US$178.6 million).
It will become the seventh wholly foreign brokerage company authorized to operate in China, after JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas, UBS and Mizuho.
This approval will strengthen Citi’s long-standing presence in China, allowing the company to better support the growth and investment needs of its customers, said Citi in an online press release.
” We appreciate the support of the regulators that allows us to expand our offer in this important market,” said Jane Fraser, Chair of the Board of Directors and CEO of Citi. “By integrating local capabilities into our global platform, we will be able to offer more services to our customers in Chinese capital markets,” she added.
Since the beginning of the year, Citi has helped Chinese customers raise more than US$40 billion in global financial markets, the company said.
This approval comes in a context of China’s constant willingness to open its financial sector. Since 2020, the CSRC has removed foreign ownership limits in brokerage companies, fund management companies and futures companies, allowing foreign institutions to operate 100% licensed entities.
With the support of the authorities, global investment banks moved from joint ventures to subsidiaries to 100% to gain access to the Chinese market, with JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs among the first to complete this transition.
Last year, UBS finalized the transfer of its total control to its brokering subsidiary in China, while Mizuho Securities subsequently obtained approval, expanding the number of brokers wholly owned by foreign capital in China.
” The arrival of foreign dealers in China has enriched the competitive landscape of the domestic securities market and reflects the long-term confidence of foreign institutions in the Chinese market,” said Yang Jingdong, a member of Ping An Securities Executive Committee.
According to Yang, this will encourage national companies to accelerate their efforts to strengthen wealth management, derivatives and cross-border investment banking, improve their services and better contribute to the development of the real economy.
In a recent interview with Xinhua, Maria Ramos, president of the Standard Chartered Group, said that the orderly increase in China’s financial opening had created concrete opportunities for Standard Chartered’s China-related activities, including the internationalization of the RMB, global expansion of Chinese companies, cross-border trade, green finance and wealth management.
Between 2020 and 2026, the bank invested nearly US$600 million in China, and Ramos indicated that it would continue to invest in its operations and technologies in China. “We want to translate our confidence in China into tangible action on the ground,” she said.
Another sign of China’s financial opening, the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, has authorized a subsidiary of the US Visa payment giant to establish a bank card clearing facility in China. Visa described this initiative as “an important step towards establishing the company in the Chinese payment market”.
At the annual Financial Street Forum 2026 conference held this week in Beijing, WRCC President Wu Qing reaffirmed the country’s commitment to continue a high-level opening.
The CSRC will encourage foreign institutions to leverage the expertise and assets of their parent companies to further improve their product offerings and participate in innovative activities in China, he said.
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