BEIJING, March 4 -- China's financial institutions received 51.85 billion yuan (8.44 billion US dollars) in net foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2014, the country's foreign exchange regulator said on Wednesday.

The figure is higher than the 26.49 billion yuan in net FDI received in 2013, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).

Net overseas direct investment from China's financial institutions, including banks, insurers and securities firms, totalled 38.26 billion yuan in 2014, lower than the 71.62 billion yuan in the previous year.

During the fourth quarter of 2014, net FDI in China's financial institutions climbed to 14.72 billion yuan from 11.68 billion yuan in the third quarter, while net outbound direct investment reached 19.8 billion U.S. dollars, beating the 300 million yuan recorded in the third quarter.

The SAFE has been releasing data on a quarterly basis since 2012 as part of the regulator's efforts to increase the transparency of foreign exchange statistics.