JPMorgan Asset Management Singapore gets licence to trade in China's securities markets

JPMORGAN Asset Management Singapore has received its Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) licence from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, it announced on Thursday.

This licence will allow it to trade offshore renminbi funds in China's securities markets within approved quota.

Said Steven Billet, CEO of JPMorgan Asset Management Singapore: "It will help us meet the growing demand of investors for Chinese bonds, stocks and money-market instruments.

"Although we expect downward pressure on the Chinese economy from the slowing property market and the corporate deleveraging, we see domestic consumption and exports to a recovering US economy supporting top line growth and China enjoying renewed investor interest."

JPMorgan Asset Management Singapore will next apply to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) for an RQFII investment quota. It plans to utilise the quota to extend its range of renminbi product offerings to clients.

The RQFII licence in Singapore follows the successful application in Hong Kong, where JPMorgan Asset Management received a RMB1 billion investment quota from SAFE under the RQFII scheme in January 2014.

It currently has US$6.9 billion in assets under management in Singapore. As at Sept 30, 2014, its assets under management in Asia-Pacific totalled US$133.5 billion.