Recently, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission announced that it had formulated 12 new measures to open up its banking and insurance sectors to the world, in order to bring variety to market subjects and invigorate the market. These 12 measures include but are not limited to: in accordance with consistency of domestic and foreign investments, removal of the maximum shareholding ratios for single domestic banks and single foreign banks alike; removal of the $10 billion total asset requirement for setup of foreign corporate banks in China, and the $20 billion total asset requirement for foreign banks to open branches in China; removal of the $1 billion total asset requirement for overseas financial institutions to invest in trust companies; permission for overseas financial institutions to invest in foreign-funded insurance companies in China; and removal of the 30 years of operation and $200 million total asset requirements for foreign insurance brokers to operate in China.

Source: http://www.gov.cn/