The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is considering allowing foreign companies to issue shares on the mainland as part of its drive to reform the convertibility of the yuan and open up China’s capital market. Beijing will press ahead with reforms to allow individuals to invest in overseas capital markets directly, according to the central bank’s 2015 annual report. Beijing hopes introducing foreign companies to China’s capital market will give more options to choice-starved investors and shore up the corporate governance of domestic listed firms. Without specifying a time frame, the central bank said “in future” it would allow qualified foreign companies to issue shares on the mainland, including Chinese depositary receipts (CDRs). These are certificates issued by Chinese banks that represent a pool of foreign equity traded on Chinese exchanges. CDRs are similar to American depositary receipts (ADRs), which have been widely used by Chinese companies to issue shares in the U.S. market. China would launch the qualified domestic individual investor scheme, known as QDII2, at a “proper time” to facilitate financial investment by individuals in overseas markets, the central bank said in highlighting its key tasks in making the yuan fully convertible under the capital account, the South China Morning Post reports.