彭博独家：外汇局部分地方分局要求银行提高客户人民币套保比例并下达业务指标，但无点名的可交易受益主体

Some local branches of China’s foreign exchange regulator are urging banks to encourage their clients to hedge more of their currency exposure, signaling an intensifying campaign to shield companies from related risk.

At least two regional subsidiaries of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, or SAFE, demanded lenders increase their clients’ yuan hedging ratios, in addition to setting specific targets for the business, said the people who requested anonymity discussing confidential information. The regulators also have summoned underperforming banks for talks, they added.

The regulatory pressure has prompted some banks to offer more incentives to their clients to conduct currency hedging, including better terms and more flexible deal structures. Several regional units of SAFE have even provided subsidies to local companies that heeded the call.

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SAFE’s stepped-up efforts to encourage more currency hedging come as the yuan has strengthened about 6% against the dollar in the past year, making it Asia’s best performer. They also show authorities’ sense of urgency to keep the country’s crucial export engine humming, now that weakening investment and anemic consumption are weighing on the economy.

“The surge in energy costs, driven by the Middle East war, increasingly looks more lasting, and metal prices have surged, too, which will squeeze profit margins of Chinese exporters,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk, head of cross-asset strategy Asia at BBVA. “In such a challenging environment, it’s critical for companies to eliminate the risk of incurring losses from FX moves, and to pay the insurance premium of currency hedges.”

While Chinese companies have made considerable progress in using financial instruments to mitigate currency risks in the past decade, their yuan hedging ratio dropped to 36.84% in July, down from the all-time high of 38.92% recorded in the preceding month, according to an index compiled by Bloomberg.

As economic and trade ties between China and the world continue to deepen, businesses increasingly need to manage exchange rate risks in cross-border trade and investment, SAFE said in a written response to queries from Bloomberg News.

“Companies can choose exchange-rate risk management approaches suited to their own circumstances by managing currency risks from the fundamental roots, such as via natural hedging by balancing out foreign-currency receipts and payments, adjusting invoicing currencies, and passing through costs,” it said, adding that derivatives are another way to manage currency exposure.

A stronger yuan has become a growing burden for Chinese exporters this year, triggering foreign-exchange losses that have weighed on earnings. Shenzhen-listed Guangdong TCL Smart Home Appliances Co., for example, said its first-half net profit fell almost 20% on year, mainly due to sizable currency losses.

Beijing has embarked on a years-long drive to instill a greater sense of urgency in businesses to hedge foreign-exchange risks, partly preparing them for the vision of a powerful yuan that may one day rival the dollar. The efforts have started to bear fruit. Banks’ yuan options trading volume on behalf of clients jumped to a record $110.8 billion in June, before retreating the following month, according to SAFE’s data.

Forwards accounted for 37% of all the yuan hedging transactions in China’s local market in July, followed by options at 32% and swaps at 30%.

In order to meet the targets set by the regulator, some banks have pulled out all the stops to incentivize clients to hedge yuan exposure, including giving up their own profit margins, according to the people familiar with the matter. A few lenders have even negotiated with clients to convert spot yuan transactions into short-dated forward deals to boost derivatives trading volume, one of them said.

Banks are also more motivated to promote hybrid transactions involving multiple options as a hedging instrument because they will help them end up reporting at least twice the notional principal amount than using a forward transaction, the people said.

Meanwhile, a Bloomberg review of public statements show that SAFE’s branches in provinces such as Zhejiang, Henan, Hebei, and Yunnan have since last year provided financial incentives to encourage currency hedging by companies. The measures included partially or fully subsidizing option premiums and outright cash rewards.

In the first seven months of this year, the notional volume of foreign-exchange derivatives used for hedging exceeded $1.6 trillion, up more than 40% from a year earlier, SAFE said in its written response. The share of all corporate foreign-exchange transactions accounted for by hedging activity, or the foreign-exchange hedging ratio, reached 35.5%, up 5.5 percentage points from the full-year level in 2025, it said.

Banks provide a diversified range of foreign-exchange risk-management products and services in accordance with market principles and the varying needs of companies, SAFE said. In recent years, SAFE has continued its outreach and education efforts, encouraging companies to adopt a risk-neutral approach to exchange-rate management and enhance their ability to manage currency risks, the regulator added.

“A number of listed companies with overseas operations have recently continued to report substantial foreign-exchange losses,” said Zhaopeng Xing, senior China strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group. “These tangible losses, together with growing market awareness, are likely to motivate companies to increase their use of hedging instruments.”