Following a complaint brought at the WTO, China has changed regulations governing foreign financial information providers. From the Los Angeles Times:
The rules eliminate a requirement that foreign providers must work through a Chinese agent and reduce the amount of information they must disclose about their operations.
Beijing agreed to the changes in November to end a World Trade Organization complaint that it improperly helped the state-run Xinhua News Agency compete to supply financial data to banks, brokerages and other clients. Trade officials said the settlement would help Thomson Reuters Corp., Bloomberg LP and Dow Jones & Co.
Xinhua was replaced as the industry regulator in February with a Cabinet body, the State Council Information Office, after complaints that Xinhua should not be allowed to regulate its competitors.
Foreign providers that already operate in China must apply to the new regulator by July 1 for permission to continue said a Cabinet statement. It said the regulator has the power to reject applications but gave no grounds on which permission might be refused.
