Standard Chartered Plc's (STAN.L) China unit said it had become the first foreign bank to trade treasury bond futures in the country which is deregulating capital markets.
The move comes as China steps up efforts to draw global investors amid months of foreign money outflows from its $20-trillion bond market.
In a statement on Wednesday, Standard Chartered Bank (China) Ltd said it had completed its first treasury bond futures transaction in China, with the permission of regulators.
Treasury bond futures are a key tool to manage interest rate risks, and China's opening-up of the market will allow foreign investors to better participate in its onshore bond market and promote yuan internationalisation, the bank said.
"We believe that the depth and breadth of global investors' participation in China's capital market will continue to increase" as more comprehensive risk management tools become available, its Asia chief executive officer Benjamin Hung said.
Foreign holdings of yuan-denominated bonds traded on China's interbank market stood at 3.33 trillion yuan at end-November, less than 3% of the total market size.
