China will allow foreign central banks to trade in its spot interbank foreign exchange market and trade currency derivatives such as swaps and forwards, the central bank said on Monday.
The central bank also commented on a big discrepancy of 405.4 billion yuan ($63.7 billion) between two sets of official data that are proxy indicators of the demand for foreign currencies in China.
In an online question and answer statement, the central bank said the gap was due to "ample" foreign exchange liquidity in the banking system.
A Reuters calculation of central bank data released on Monday showed China's financial institutions sold a net 723.8 billion yuan of foreign exchange in August, the largest outflow on record.
But separate central bank data showed the bank sold a net 318.4 billion yuan of foreign exchange last month.
On August 11, the People's Bank of China (PBC) surprised global markets by abruptly devaluing the currency by nearly 3 percent.
In the wake of the policy change, capital outflows have intensified and the central bank has spent large amounts of foreign exchange defending the currency.
In August, China's foreign exchange reserves fell by $94 billion, also a record. A positive figure indicates net inflows and a negative figure net outflows. Zero indicates that inflows and outflows are balanced.
Meanwhile, qualified members of China's interbank market became eligible to apply for central bank lending facilities on Monday, the market operator, a unit of the PBC, announced on its website.
Standing lending facilities (SLF) will now be available by application to all qualified members of the interbank market, the central bank said.
SLF loans, first used by the PBC in 2013, are collateralized credit facilities with a maximum term of three months.
The announcement did not provide the standards institutions would need to meet to qualify for access to the loans. SLF loans have been primarily granted to State policy banks or large nationwide commercial banks.
Opening the facility to smaller banks or brokerages could potentially help smooth equity or money market volatility if capital outflows intensify and continue to affect yuan liquidity.
