The Chinese government granted the first forex license to Hong Kong-based brokerage Guo Tai Jun, the Chinese Forex Trading Center reported on Monday. The broker is now allowed to enter the interbank forex trading market and carry out “spot FX, futures and swap currency trading operations.”

More importantly, people in mainland China will now be able to trade with Guo Tai Jun without needing to have a Hong Kong bank account with HKD in it.

According to the Chinese Forex Trading Center, the brokerage offers trading on the MetaTrader 4 (MT4), one of the most popular forex platforms in China and on a global scale. Furthermore, Guo Tai Jun provides leverage up to 1:20, as per the requirements set forth by Chinese authorities.

Earlier this year there were serious concerns that the Chinese authorities are about to crack down on illegal brokers, offering leveraged forex trading services to local customers. They have also banned crypto-currency trading in the country.

Yet, it seems that China is trying to liberalize its financial market which has huge potential. Local authorities recently granted a British bank a license to hold Chinese citizens’ assets for the first time, and now the government issued the first forex broker license. Yet, there are still a lot of difficulties forex brokers operating in China face, such as the unclear license application procedure, and the problems with cross-border payments.