Washington, DC, November 10, 2017 – SIFMA today released the following statement from Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., SIFMA president and CEO, regarding an announcement from the State Council of the People’s Republic of China that the equity caps on foreign financial services firms will be increased to majority control (51 percent) and phased out fully in three years.

“Removing the equity caps is an important step forward in deepening China’s capital markets, providing a level playing field between domestic and foreign financial services firms, and rebalancing the Chinese economy.  SIFMA welcomes this development and we appreciate the constructive dialogue between Presidents Trump and Xi that paved the path for this move. We look forward to the realization of these commitments.”

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SIFMA is the voice of the U.S. securities industry. We represent the broker-dealers, banks and asset managers whose nearly 1 million employees provide access to the capital markets, raising over $2.5 trillion for businesses and municipalities in the U.S., serving clients with over $18.5 trillion in assets and managing more than $67 trillion in assets for individual and institutional clients including mutual funds and retirement plans. SIFMA, with offices in New York and Washington, D.C., is the U.S. regional member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA). For more information, visit http://www.sifma.org.