By the end of March 2004, 64 foreign banks from 19 countries and regions had established a total of 192 foreign-funded financial institutions (FFIs) in China. One hundred are now authorised to engage in local currency ( renminbi) business, and an increasing number are now taking equity stakes in Chinese financial institutions under liberalised rules for such investments.
The stated objective of the banking regulator in China, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), is to eventually bring FFIs under the same regulatory regime as domestic financial institutions and banks. Substantial progress has been made in this direction, but there are still some significant differences between them.
