China's central bank and foreign exchange regulator have raised caps on banks' offshore lending, adjusting cross-border financing rules.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said the leverage ratio for offshore lending by foreign banks' China units will rise to 1.5 from 0.5.
The change covers wholly foreign-owned banks, Sino-foreign joint ventures and branches of foreign lenders. Institutions from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan region with operations in China will be treated the same.
The Export-Import Bank of China's ratio will increase to 3.5 from 3.0.
Banks with calculated offshore lending limits below 10 billion yuan (US$1.46 billion) will be assigned a minimum cap of 10 billion yuan, the notice said.
They also allow domestic banks to lend to overseas firms indirectly via offshore banks, which can extend loans under local regulations.
The measures take effect immediately, replacing parts of a 2022 regulation that imposed stricter requirements on such arrangements.
