China has barred brokers from opening offshore trading accounts for domestic investors and launched its first purchasing programme targeting top banks’ shares since 2008, as capital outflows and foreign selling weigh on the country’s markets.The China Securities Regulatory Commission ordered Chinese brokerages and their offshore subsidiaries to “close all new account opening channels for domestic investors” seeking to invest in offshore markets, according to a notice dated September 28 seen by the Financial Times.
“Opening overseas fund accounts for domestic investors is prohibited,” the CSRC said in the note, which was first reported by Reuters. It added that brokers must stop marketing such services to investors both “at home and abroad”. The CSRC did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The move comes as Chinese policymakers are trying to shore up confidence in the economy and financial sector after a sluggish post-Covid rebound and a prolonged liquidity crisis among property developers. China’s CSI 300 index has shed more than 5 per cent this year amid fragile investor confidence in the world’s second-largest economy.