UBS AG had applied to Chinese regulators to increase its quota to invest in the country’s A shares under the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) program by US$500 million, the Swiss investment bank’s China chairman David Li said Friday.

Li said that UBS’s QFII quota was currently the largest, at US$800 million.

The QFII program is the only way foreign investors can trade in A shares.

“I am very confident that UBS Securities and other UBS entities will continue to perform well in 2008,” said Li.

UBS was the top-earning investment bank for China in 2007, with revenue of US$257.6 million, according to Thomson Financial.

Li said UBS didn’t believe the subprime crisis would fundamentally alter the strong underlying growth trend within the Asia Pacific region, including China.

Li said the UBS bank branch started carrying out yuan business in China in March and was now well positioned to conduct business in fixed income products, including the issue of domestic bonds, asset-backed securities, interest rate swaps and structured products.

Li said UBS had submitted an application for local incorporation, a prerequisite for offering local-currency retail banking services to Chinese clients.

In another development, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said Friday that it had granted South Korea’s Prudential Asset Management Co. status as a QFII.

More than 50 foreign institutions have been given investor status in China’s QFII program, the only official route for foreign investors to access China’s main, yuan-denominated securities markets. (SD-Agencies)