On September 26,2025,the People's Bank of China(PBOC),the China Securities Regulatory Commission(CSRC), and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange(SAFE) jointly issued an announcement, further supporting overseas institutional investors eligible for cash bond trading in China's bond market in conducting bond repurchase (repo) business.
In recent years, China has made significant progress in opening up its bond market. As the investment amount and bond holdings of overseas institutional investors in the market expand, the demand for liquidity management through bond repo business has also risen. As of end-August 2025, a total of 1,170 overseas institutions from 80 countries and regions have entered China's bond market, with their holdings totaling around RMB4 trillion. The PBOC has opened up bond repo business in the interbank bond market in an orderly manner. It supported overseas sovereign institutions,overseas RMB clearing banks and participating banks to engage in bond repo business in the interbank bond market from 2015 onward. And in collaboration with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), it launched offshore repo business using bonds under the Northbound Bond Connect as collateral in 2025.
Further support from the PBOC,CSRC and SAFE to facilitate bond repo business for a broader range of overseas institutional investors will help meet market needs, enhance the attractiveness of RMB bond assets, optimize the qualified overseas investor framework, consolidate Hong Kong's role as an international financial center, and foster coordinated development of onshore and offshore RMB markets. From the operational perspective, the PBOC has drawn on practices in both domestic and international repo markets, and has strengthened the alignment of bond repo mechanisms in the interbank market with internationally prevailing standards, enabling transfer and reuse of underlying bonds. It better facilitates the bond repo business for overseas institutional investors, while helping improve domestic bond repo mechanisms.
Looking ahead, the PBOC, CSRC and SAFE will continue to implement the overall strategic arrangements made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council for expanding opening-up, balance financial openness and security, work with relevant parties to refine institutional arrangements, and steadily advance the high-level institutional opening-up of China's bond market.
