A month later, the Taiwan Financial Supervisory Commission, the region's financial regulator, awarded its first license for the region's banks to conduct yuan-related business, including currency conversion, trade finance and remittances.

The license was given to HSBC Holdings' Taiwan subsidiary. The Bank of East Asia got the same kind of license a month later.

Some financial institutions in Taiwan have already been granted quotas under the QFII program, which allows investors outside the mainland to invest in the mainland's capital markets using US dollars.

In August, regulators in Taiwan gave the go-ahead for local QFII candidates to invest in the mainland's A-share market, opening that market to Taiwan institutional investors for the first time.

Individual investors in Taiwan now only have direct access to the mainland's dollar-enominated B-share market.

With no direct link to the Ashare market, many individual investors in Taiwan use the accounts of mainland friends and relatives to make investments, which lead to disputes.

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