China to allow more overseas agencies to sell panda bonds

China will allow more overseas agencies to sell panda bonds, the yuan-denominated debt sold by overseas agencies in China, in a bid to further open its domestic bond market, an official of the country's bond issue association said Tuesday.
Shi Wenchao, secretary general of China National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors, said the association would allow more international financial institutions with high ratings to sell yuan-denominated bonds in China and would extend the scope of issuers to leading foreign companies.
Shi said the government should control capital flows and adjust its accounting and rating standards to conform with those of other countries before accelerating the opening of its bond market.
China introduced overseas investors into the bond market in 2005, when International Finance Corp. and the Asian Development Bank sold 2.13 billion yuan (308.7 million U.S. dollars) of financial bonds.