(Yicai) Nov. 20 -- China is actively encouraging its banks and insurance companies to set up regional headquarters and expand their operations in Hong Kong to bolster the city’s role as an international financial center, the country’s top financial regulator said.

The National Financial Regulatory Authority supports all-round cooperation between banks and insurers in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland to jointly provide one-stop financial services for Chinese firms investing overseas, Chairman Li Yunze said at the third Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit in the special administrative region yesterday.

The NFRA wants mainland lenders to join in making Hong Kong an international gold trading center and backs mainland insurers to issue catastrophe bonds there to boost the reinsurance market and promote Hong Kong as a global innovation hub, Li noted.

The regulator also supports collaboration on developing transborder health insurance products and deeper cooperation in emerging fields such as green finance and artificial intelligence, Li said.

Moreover, the NFRA backs joint action on cross-border pension insurance within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to address the needs of Hong Kong residents who retire in the mainland, Li said, adding that new policies to enhance financial services in the Greater Bay Area will also be developed.

Li revealed that the necessary regulatory changes to implement the latest financial opening-up measures related to the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement for Hong Kong and Macao will be completed as soon as possible. That includes exploring regulatory coordination between the two jurisdictions, he said.

Under the recently signed CEPA amendment, several financial opening-up measures for Hong Kong and Macau were introduced, such as removing the USD2 billion total asset requirement for financial institutions in the two SARs seeking to invest in mainland insurers and allowing their mainland branches to engage in the bank card business

“The NFRA will strongly support Hong Kong in maintaining its unique position and advantages under the 'One Country, Two Systems' framework to ensure the long-term prosperity and stability of its financial sector,” Li pointed out.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione