The People's Bank of China, China's central bank, has moved to allow all financial institutions in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone to raise capital from overseas markets.

Zhang Xin, deputy director of the Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China.

"From now on, all corporations and financial bodies, including banks, insurance agents, securities brokers and other non-banking financial institutions are allowed to raise funds from overseas markets."

Banks in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone are now allowed to borrow overseas without prior consent from authorities, the Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China said on Thursday.

Previous regulations only allowed corporations in specific sectors to raise funds overseas.

Under the new regulation, the scale of financing has also been doubled to up to twice the company' capital.

Companies in the Shanghai FTZ are no longer limited to borrowing Chinese yuan only.