High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII; Chinese: 合格境外機構投资者) is a program that was launched in 2002 in People's Republic of China to allow licensed foreign investors to buy and sell yuan-denominated "A" shares in China's mainland stock exchanges (in Shanghai and Shenzhen). Chinese mainland stock exchanges were previously closed off to foreign investors due to China's exercise of tight capital controls which restrict the movement of assets in-and-out of the country. By the end of April 2011, 103 licenced QFII investors had been granted a combined quota of $20.7 billion to invest in China's capital markets under the QFII program. Foreign access to China's yuan-denominated "A" stocks are still limited, with quotas placed under the QFII program amounting to US$30 billion.