On July 20, the Finance Stability Commission issued 11 measures to further expand the opening of the financial industry to the outside world, involving banks, insurance, securities firms, funds, futures, credit rating and other fields. The financial reform and opening-up accelerated again. What is the opening up progress of the relevant industries? What preparations have the regulatory authorities made? This topic will elaborate on this in depth.
With the abolition of foreign capital shareholding ratio restriction one year ahead of schedule by futures companies, many overseas investment institutions began to expect that the futures market would also be open to the outside world by a "larger step".
Data obtained by 21st century economic reporters show that. up to now, 199 overseas enterprises have participated in domestic futures market investment, mainly from 16 countries and regions such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, China, the United Kingdom and the Cayman Islands.
“Many of them are business organizations set up by Chinese-funded enterprises overseas, which carry out cross-regional arbitrage, cross-variety arbitrage and hedging investment in the domestic futures market in the name of foreign capital.“ A person familiar with the relevant policies told reporters.
In his view, in order to attract more overseas institutions to invest in the domestic futures market, there are still some problems to be solved, such as currency exchange, penetrating regulatory running-in and optimizing the structure of futures market traders.
“Some large overseas commodity traders have not yet entered the domestic futures market to carry out hedging. The main reason is that they are worried about the large volume of their hedging transactions, and there may be operational problems when large amounts of funds are converted into US dollars. “The above-mentioned insiders pointed out. But he found that the real obstacle to their entry into the domestic futures market hedging is that the major domestic futures traders have not been qualified as "Qualified Central Counterparty" (QCCP). After all, many overseas investment institutions have internal regulations that invest in exchanges without QCCP qualification, and the related risk-based expenditure is hundreds of times the amount of clearing under QCCP, resulting in a huge increase in capital expenditure, and even some large European and American investment institutions require subsidiaries to participate in derivatives clearing business in QCCP.
At the beginning of this year, the relevant departments successively approved futures exchanges such as DCE as "QCCP", which effectively solved the above-mentioned operational problems of overseas investment institutions.
Many people in the futures industry believe that while promoting the internationalization of futures exchanges, relevant departments need to effectively curb the problems of individual institutions and individuals manipulating futures market prices to make profits by using mass related accounts.
Many large overseas investment institutions have proposed to the domestic financial regulatory authorities that if the price of futures market fluctuates abnormally at some time, it will make overseas institutions feel unsafe and affect the pace of their investment in China's futures market. So they suggest that China's financial regulators should "see clearly, calculate accurately and control" the futures market, according to the people familiar with the situation. He said frankly that this is also one of the reasons why the relevant departments have recently implemented penetrating supervision and strengthened the management of controlled accounts in the futures market.
The greater significance of implementing penetrating supervision is to let enterprises, private equity funds and other institutional investors dispel the fear of price manipulation of futures products, increase their participation in futures market hedging, and thus change the current futures market trading structure dominated by retail investors. The insider pointed out. Under the relatively rational pricing environment dominated by institutional investors, it is more conducive for overseas investment institutions to carry out diversified futures trading strategies.
To promote QFII and RQFII to participate in commodity futures investment
Data obtained by economic reporters show that with the opening up of crude oil, iron ore and PTA futures, the investment proportion of overseas institutions in these futures is increasing. By the end of June, the cumulative turnover of overseas institutions in crude oil futures, iron ore futures and PTA futures reached 5.78 million lots, 7.16 million lots and 26.53 million lots, accounting for 14.38%, 2.54% and 8.64% respectively.
"Most overseas enterprises invest in the domestic futures market mainly by hedging, cross-regional arbitrage and cross-variety arbitrage." A commodity trader pointed out to reporters. For example, some overseas crude oil traders carry out cross-regional arbitrage and hedging investments through domestic crude oil futures and Oman crude oil futures, thus locking counterparties and trade profits in future.
In his view, this is also one of the main reasons why these enterprises can win foreign banks' trade financing. Without hedging contracts to lock in transaction profits and potential buyers, overseas banks would be afraid of the risk of bad debts in trade financing caused by the sharp fall in oil prices, and would be reluctant to lend.
He admits that there are not many overseas companies participating in domestic crude oil futures hedging or cross-regional arbitrage trading. The reason is that some international commodity traders are worried about the large volume of spot hedging delivery, which may lead to the operation of large amounts of funds to be exchanged out of the country.
In addition, many overseas commodity miners are not interested enough in participating in domestic futures market hedging. Taking iron ore as an example, the actual mining costs of these miners in Australia, Brazil and other places may be less than $40 per ton. Compared with the current global trading price of about $90 per ton, these miners have considerable returns, which makes them less motivated to carry out hedging investments.
For this reason, domestic futures exchanges and futures companies are actively introducing to them the benefits of hedging, attracting them to try to participate in domestic futures market investment.
The 21st Century Economic Reporter exclusively learned that the relevant departments are actively promoting the participation of QFII institutions and RQFII institutions in domestic commodity futures, financial futures, options listed on futures exchanges and other investments, and changing the limitations of QFII and RQFII institutions only participating in stock index futures derivatives investment.
In the overseas market, many commodity traders and miners also carry out hedging business through investment banks or large investment institutions. Therefore, once QFII and RQFII institutions (mainly large international investment banks and large investment institutions) are approved to participate in the investment of financial futures, options and commodity futures, they are equal to these commodity traders enter the domestic futures market to carry out hedging investment, which provides a new way of operation. The above commodity traders point out.
However, in order to persuade QFII and RQFII institutions to actively participate in domestic futures market investment, we need to go through the running-in period of penetrating supervision.
A futures company business director told reporters that they are now explaining to some QFII agencies the actual operating rules of penetrating regulation - they thought that the relevant departments would force a software to be added to their trading system to obtain the actual trading status of relevant accounts (including related accounts) and related accounts. Controller information, but the fact is that they only need to install relevant software in the corresponding trading system, and declare relevant information independently according to the requirements of penetrating supervision. There is no compulsory demand for all information.
"This also dispels the concerns of many overseas QFII institutions." He pointed out. In fact, many domestic and foreign regulatory issues can be properly solved by running-in. For example, the Cayman Islands investment institutions were once difficult to open accounts on domestic futures exchanges because they could not provide relevant tax information. However, through the communication of relevant financial regulatory authorities, the offshore financial center enterprises can fully open accounts. With domestic futures market investment, only the corresponding tax information can be submitted as required.

Optimizing the Trading Structure of Futures Market
In the view of many futures industry insiders, in order to further attract overseas investment institutions to participate in domestic futures market investment, the relevant departments have made a lot of efforts, including introducing market maker system to improve the continuity of futures contracts, so that overseas investment institutions can see better development of cross-term arbitrage or hedging. Operating space.
At the same time, relevant departments are actively guiding enterprises and private equity funds to actively participate in futures market investment, so as to continuously optimize the structure of futures market trading subject.
By the end of June, the investments of individual investors, enterprises and private equity institutions in the futures market of China amounted to RMB 1990 billion, RMB 106.9 billion and RMB 156 billion, accounting for 43.08%, 23.14% and 33.77% respectively.
If more enterprises and private equity institutions continue to enter the futures market and increase the proportion of investment, the whole futures market pricing voice will gradually tilt to institutional investors, undoubtedly allowing overseas investment institutions to carry out diversified futures investment strategies have greater space for implementation.

Over the past decades, many futures exchanges around the world have been short-lived. The apparent reason is the lack of participation of institutional investors, which leads to a strong speculative atmosphere in the market. However, the deep reason is that these futures markets have a high proportion of individual investors and speculative capital, which makes futures prices vulnerable to short-term manipulation. Frequent fluctuations have deterred institutional investors.
A manager of an overseas futures investment hedge fund told reporters that penetrating supervision can effectively curb the problem of individual institutions manipulating futures prices by using a large number of related accounts. In addition, more enterprises and private equity institutions invested in the market, the proportion of institutional investors in the domestic futures market continued to rise, and overseas investment opportunities. Institutions' enthusiasm for participation will also rise. In a relatively rational pricing environment dominated by institutional investors, overseas investment institutions believe that their diversified futures investment strategies accumulated over the years have the opportunity to generate more substantial Alpha excess returns.
It is worth noting that in order to avoid the phenomenon of "manipulation" of domestic futures prices by overseas derivatives, the domestic financial regulatory authorities have recently signed or upgraded the Memorandum of Supervision and Cooperation with the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission, the Singapore Financial Regulatory Authority and the German Federal Financial Regulatory Authority to actively implement the strengthening of cross-border derivatives. Municipal supervision includes "determination of notification obligations", "permission from domestic financial regulatory authorities for overseas listing of some cross-border derivatives", "authorization from data obliges", "full respect and consideration of the opinions of relevant Chinese departments" and so on.
In the view of the hedge fund manager, the main purpose of this move is to avoid overseas institutions using cross-border derivatives listed abroad to "manipulate" domestic futures prices for profit, thus causing many domestic and foreign investment institutions to worry that the domestic futures market cannot " see clearly, calculate accurately and control uncertainties", and eventually slowing down the corresponding pace of investment.

金融业开放提速路径
7月20日，金稳委发布进一步扩大金融业对外开放的11条举措，涉及银行、保险、券商、基金、期货、信用评级等多个领域，金融改革开放再度提速。当前相关行业的开放进度如何？监管部门都做好了哪些准备？本专题将对此进行深度阐述。
随着期货公司提前一年取消外资股比限制，不少海外投资机构开始期待期货市场同样会出现“更大幅度”的对外开放。
21世纪经济报道记者获得的数据显示，截至目前，参与境内期货市场投资的境外企业机构达到199个，主要来自香港地区、新加坡、中国台湾、英国、开曼群岛等16个国家和地区。
“其中不少是中资企业在海外设立的业务机构，以外资名义进入境内期货市场开展跨地套利、跨品种套利与套期保值投资。”一位熟悉相关政策的知情人士向记者透露。
在他看来，要吸引更多海外机构进入境内期货市场投资，目前仍需解决资本项货币兑换、穿透式监管磨合与优化期货市场交易者结构等问题。
“部分海外大型大宗商品交易商之所以尚未进入境内期货市场开展套期保值，主要是他们担心自身套期保值交易量较大，到时大笔资金兑换美元出境可能会存在操作问题。”上述知情人士指出。但他发现，真正阻碍他们进入境内期货市场套期保值的，主要是此前境内各大期货交易商尚未获得“合格中央对手方”（QualifyingCCP，下称QCCP）资质。毕竟，很多海外投资机构内部规定——在没有取得QCCP资质的交易所开展投资，相关风险计提支出是QCCP名下投资清算额的数百倍，造成资本开支大增，甚至部分欧美大型投资机构要求子公司必须在QCCP参与衍生品清算业务。
今年初，相关部门先后批复大商所等期货交易所为“QCCP”，有效解决了海外投资机构的上述操作难题。
多位期货业内人士认为，在推动期货交易所“国际化”同时，相关部门还需要有效遏制个别机构及个人利用海量关联账户操纵期货市场价格牟利等问题。
“此前多家海外大型投资机构向国内金融监管部门提出，若某些时刻期货市场价格运行出现异常波动，反而会让海外机构感到投资不安全，影响他们进入中国期货市场投资的步伐。”上述知情人士透露，因此他们建议中国金融监管部门需让期货市场“看得清、算得准、管得住”。
他直言，这也是近期相关部门在期货市场落实穿透式监管、强化实控账户管理的原因之一。
“落实穿透式监管的更大意义，是让企业、私募基金等机构投资者打消期货产品价格受操纵的顾虑，加大参与期货市场套期保值力度，从而改变当前期货市场散户为主的交易结构。”这位知情人士指出。在机构投资者主导的相对理性定价环境下，更有利于海外投资机构开展多元化期货交易策略。
推动QFII、RQFII参与商品期货投资
21世纪经济报道记者获得的数据显示，随着原油期货、铁矿石、PTA期货对外开放后，海外机构在其中的投资比重日益增加。截至6月底，海外机构在原油期货、铁矿石、PTA期货的累计成交量分别达到578万手、716万手与2653万手，占比分别达到14.38%、2.54%与8.64%。
“多数海外企业在国内期货市场的投资，主要以套期保值、跨地套利与跨品种套利为主。”一位大宗商品贸易商向记者指出。比如，部分海外原油贸易商通过境内原油期货与阿曼原油期货开展跨地套利与套期保值投资，从而锁定未来某个时间交易对手与贸易利润。
在他看来，这也是这些企业能赢得海外银行贸易融资的主要原因之一，若没有套期保值合约锁定交易利润与潜在买家，海外银行就会担心油价大跌导致贸易融资出现坏账风险，进而不愿放贷。
他坦言，目前参与境内原油期货套期保值或跨地套利交易的海外企业并不多。原因是部分国际大宗商品贸易商担心现货套保交割量较大，可能会出现大额资金换汇出境的操作问题。
此外，不少海外大宗商品开采商对参与境内期货市场套期保值的兴趣也不够强。以铁矿石为例，这些开采商在澳洲巴西等地的实际开采成本可能不到40美元/吨，相比当前全球约90美元/吨交易价格拥有可观的收益，导致他们没有太强动力开展套期保值投资。
为此国内期货交易所与期货公司正积极向他们介绍开展套期保值的好处，吸引他们尝试参与境内期货市场投资。
21世纪经济报道记者独家获悉，当前相关部门还在积极推进QFII机构、RQFII机构参与境内商品期货、金融期货、期交所上市的期权品种等投资，改变QFII、RQFII机构只能参与股指期货衍生品投资的局限性。
“在海外市场，很多大宗商品贸易商与开采商也会通过投行或大型投资机构开展套期保值业务，因此QFII、RQFII机构（主要是国际大型投行与大型投资机构）一旦获批参与金融期货、期权品种、商品期货的投资，等于为这些大宗商品贸易商进入境内期货市场开展套期保值投资提供了一条新操作路径。”上述大宗商品贸易商指出。
不过，要说服QFII、RQFII机构积极参与境内期货市场投资，还需迈过穿透式监管的磨合期。
一位期货公司业务总监向记者透露，目前他们正向一些QFII机构解释穿透式监管的实际操作细则——原先他们认为，相关部门会在他们交易系统强行加入一个软件以强行获取相关账户（包括关联账户）的实际交易状况与实控人资料，但事实是他们只需自己在相应交易系统里安装相关软件，按穿透式监管要求自主申报相关信息资料即可，不存在强行索取所有信息资料的行为。
“这也打消了不少海外QFII机构的顾虑。”他指出。其实很多境内外监管问题都可以通过磨合得到妥善解决，比如此前开曼群岛投资机构因无法提供相关的税务资料，一度难以在境内期货交易所开户，但通过相关金融监管部门的沟通，目前这个离岸金融中心企业完全可以开户参与境内期货市场投资，只需按要求递交相应的税务资料即可。
优化期货市场交易结构
在多位期货业内人士看来，为了进一步吸引海外投资机构参与境内期货市场投资，目前相关部门已经做了不少努力，其中包括引入做市商制度提高期货合约连续性，让海外投资机构看到开展跨期套利或套期保值的更好操作空间。
与此同时，相关部门还在积极引导企业、私募基金积极参与期货市场投资，从而持续优化期货市场交易主体结构。
记者获得的数据显示，截至6月底，中国期货市场个人投资者、企业、私募机构资管产品在期货市场的投资金额分别为1990亿元、1069亿元与1560亿元，占比分别达到43.08%、23.14%与33.77%。
“若更多企业、私募机构持续入场加大投资比重，令整个期货市场定价话语权逐步向机构投资者倾斜，无疑让海外投资机构开展多元化期货投资策略拥有更大的施展空间。”上述期货公司业务总监认为。
过去数十年全球不少期货交易所之所以昙花一现，表面原因是缺乏机构投资者的参与，导致市场投机氛围浓厚，但深层次原因是这些期货市场个人投资者与投机资本占比较高，导致期货品种价格容易受到短期操纵而异常波动，令机构投资者望而却步。
一位海外期货投资型对冲基金经理向记者直言，若穿透式监管能有效遏制个人机构利用海量关联账户操纵期货价格等问题，加之更多企业与私募机构入市投资令境内期货市场机构投资者交易占比持续提升，海外投资机构的参与热情也会水涨船高——在一个由机构投资者主导的、相对理性的定价环境下，海外投资机构相信自身多年积累的多元化期货投资策略有机会产生更可观的阿尔法超额收益。
值得注意的是，为了避免海外衍生品“操纵”境内期货价格的现象出现，近期国内金融监管部门与香港证监会、新加坡金融监管局、德国联邦金融监管局等签署或升级《监管合作备忘录》，积极落实强化跨境衍生品上市的监管，其中包括“确定通知义务”“部分跨境衍生品品种海外上市交易需获得境内金融监管部门许可”“数据权利人授权”“充分尊重和考虑中国相关部门意见”等。
在这位对冲基金经理看来，此举的主要目的，是避免海外机构利用境外上市的跨境衍生品品种“操纵”境内期货价格牟利，从而令众多境内外投资机构担心境内期货市场“看不清、算不准、管不住”，最终放缓相应的投资步伐。