China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has approved three securities firms to carry out pilot business in foreign exchange (forex) settlement and sales, it was announced on Thursday.

CITIC Securities, Huatai Securities and China Merchants Securities are allowed to carry out spot forex settlement and sales on their own and on behalf of customers under the premise of controllable risks. They will also participate in inter-bank forex market transactions.

The move will help boost the balanced development of domestic securities companies' local currency and foreign currency business and promote quality growth of the financial sector, the SAFE said.

The pilot business of forex settlement and sales of securities firms can help expand the participants in the forex market, enrich the varieties of forex transactions, and improve the market-based exchange rate formation mechanism for the renminbi, it said.

China has been boosting forex business of the non-bank financial institutions as part of efforts to deepen financial reforms.

The SAFE will summarize the pilot experience and expand forex market participants to boost the healthy growth of forex business of non-bank financial institutions, it said.