HSBC has facilitated a number of market firsts following China’s progressive opening of its onshore derivative markets to qualified foreign investors (QFIs).
On 11 October, HSBC facilitated the first commodities futures trade in the market. The trade was placed by a QFI hedge fund, which has been actively investing in China and using HSBC as its local QFI custodian.
On 19 September, HSBC also facilitated an index option transaction on the China Financial Futures Exchange placed by a Hong Kong-based hedge fund, becoming the first international custodian bank to enable a QFI to invest in China’s futures markets.
On 2 September, the CSRC approved investors under China’s QFI scheme to trade in 41 selected futures and options contracts across China’s five major exchanges. These include Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, Dalian Commodity Exchange, China Financial Futures Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange, including Shanghai International Energy Exchange.