By Selena Li

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Standard Chartered has suspended new subscriptions by its clients in China into offshore products via a quota-based channel since last week, the Asia-focused bank said in a statement to Reuters.

The London-headquartered bank cited “commercial reasons” as the reason for the suspension of new investments under the qualified domestic institutional investor (QDII) programme. It did not elaborate.

StanChart’s move comes amid Beijing’s efforts to stem capital outflows as weaker yuan and a slowing economy have driven savers to move assets offshore.

Launched in 2006, QDII is one of the few outbound investment channels qualified domestic and foreign institutions use to help Chinese wealth and corporate clients to invest in offshore funds, bonds and other structured products.

(Reporting by Selena Li; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Jamie Freed)