Blackrock nabs more RQFII quota

China’s qualified foreign institutional investor scheme (QFII) and its renminbi equivalent (RQFII) allow foreign institutional investors to invest in onshore Chinese assets, within allocated quotas.

US-based Blackrock Institutional Trust Company received RMB 4bn ($604m) in RQFII quota for the first time. It is the firm’s second US-based entity that received RQFII quota. The first was Blackrock Fund Advisors, which received an RMB 11bn quota in February.

The firm has quotas for its different entities registered in the UK (RMB 2.1bn); Hong Kong (RMB 17bn) and Singapore (RMB 20bn). In total, it has RMB 54.1bn in RQFII quota, making it the largest RQFII quota holder globally. The second is CSOP Asset Management, which has RMB 46.1bn.

The other firms that received new or additional quotas are China International Capital Corporation, Caitong International Asset Management and Rongtong Global Investment.

Under the QFII scheme, two Korean entities received additional quotas: KB Asset Management and The Bank of Korea, which is the country’s central bank.

QFII and RQFII quotas given in November

Source: SAFE

Since the quota programmes began, SAFE has awarded a total of RMB 604.86bn in RQFII quotas to 195 licence holders and $96.7bn to QFII quotas to 287 licence holders, according to the agency’s data.

RQFII and QFII bring capital into China. By comparison, the qualified domestic institutional investor (QDII) scheme provides quota for onshore investors to invest offshore.

SAFE stopped issuing new QDII quota in March 2015 due to concern over capital outflows and the subsequent effect on the RMB currency.