Bond Connect to expand further

China's central bank has unveiled a series of new measures to expand the Bond Connect program linking the country's interbank bond market with global markets via Hong Kong, allowing more onshore institutional investors to participate — a major move designed to strengthen the special administrative region's role as a global offshore renminbi hub.

The measures were unveiled on Tuesday at a summit marking the 8th anniversary of the mutual market access scheme. In the first five months of this year, the program's average daily turnover reached nearly 47 billion yuan ($6.55 billion), marking a 30-fold increase since its launch in 2017, according to Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing.

One of the most significant measures, starting from Tuesday, is that eligible participants in the program's southbound leg will include four types of non-bank financial institutions: securities firms, fund managers, insurers and wealth management institutions.