(Yicai Global) March 7 -- China's securities regulator has licensed the International Monetary Fund to invest directly in the domestic stock market through one of its yuan-denominated investment programs.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission today welcomed the Washington, D.C.-based IMF into the RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor scheme, the regulator said in a statement posted on its website.

Started in December 2011, the RQFII program provides a backflow channel for the increasing number of overseas yuan funds, enabling certain qualified foreign investors to invest such funds back into mainland securities.