BlackRock announced it had gotten a renminbi qualified foreign institutional investor license from the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
In a news release Tuesday, BlackRock said it will now move forward with the second step in China's two-step regulatory process by applying for an investment quota from China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange.
The RQFII license, awarded to BlackRock Asset Management North Asia, provides BlackRock with a second conduit for investing offshore investors' money in China's domestic capital markets.
Under the qualified foreign institutional investor program launched more than a decade ago, BlackRock received a license in July 2011, and subsequently two quotas of $100 million each, the first in June 2012 and the second in March 2013.
The RQFII program, launched at the end of 2011, has been seen as a key piece of China's strategy to gradually push for the internationalization of its currency. Money management firms have been at the front of the line for RQFII quotas.
By contrast, institutional investors, including foreign central banks, sovereign wealth funds and pension funds, have been the leading recipients of QFII quotas.
