BEIJING — China’s banking and insurance regulator is considering raising the upper limit of the proportion of capital that insurance firms can hold in equities, the regulator said on June 9.

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) is “actively studying the issue”, which aims to optimize the allocation of insurance funds, the CBIRC said in an interview with Financial News, a publication run by the central bank.

The regulator will roll out relative policies under the principle of prudential regulation, and give insurance companies more investment autonomy so they can better play to their strengths in long-term and value investments, the CBIRC said.