Shenzhen may lead individual investment easing

Qianhai Experimental Zone in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, may become the first region in China to allow individual investors to invest directly in overseas capital markets.

Li Qiang, deputy head of Qianhai's administrative office, said during a Tuesday forum in Hong Kong that the zone will further its efforts in promoting two-way renminbi flow, and may be one of the first pilot regions for the Qualified Domestic Individual Investors (QDII2) program once the central bank gives the green light, Securities Times reported on Wednesday.

Previously, domestic investors could only invest in overseas capital markets by buying wealth management products from financial institutions, which then use the capital via the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investors (QDII) program.

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, said in early 2013 that QDII2 will be launched at the "appropriate time".

Earlier reports quoting Yan Feng, chairman of Guotai Junan Securities, suggested that the first quota for the QDII2 may be around $50 billion, while Shanghai Securities News reported that a single QDII2 investment must be between 500,000 to 20 million yuan ($82,700 to $3.3 million).