(Yicai Global) June 1 -- Standard Chartered China has established a new working group to help the company navigate the country's recent reforms on shareholder-ratios in the financial sector and explore the possibility of setting up new units.

The UK-based banking firm also aims to offer more innovative financial products in China and to obtain more licenses to expand into new areas, said Zhai Yanqun, east China region general manager of Standard Chartered China at a Shanghai Banking Association media exchange.

"Foreign banks are encouraged by the recent introduction of a new round of China's opening-up policies," Zhai said. "We hope to seize the opportunities presented in the Chinese financial market."

China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission regulator brought in measures last month to allow foreign firms greater control over their Chinese joint ventures in the country's CNY253-trillion (USD40-trillion) financial sector. The change comes as part of President Xi Jinping's pledge to "significantly broaden" market access in the world's second-largest economy.

Foreign companies have been allowed to hold 51 percent of their China units since April 27. UBS was the first to make a move under the new rules, requesting permission to increase its 25-percent stake in UBS Securities to 51 percent within days of the change, while Japan's Nomura Holdings and JP Morgan have since followed suit with applications to set up majority-owned securities units.

Editor: William Clegg