China's financial institutions, including banks, insurers and securities firms, saw net investment outflows in the third quarter of this year, said the country's foreign exchange regulator Friday.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China's financial institutions came in at 5.53 billion U.S. dollars during the period, while 6.71 billion dollars of investment flowed out, resulting in a net outflow of 1.18 billion dollars, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).

China's financial institutions made a net overseas investment of 3.73 billion U.S. dollars during the period.

SAFE has been publishing data on a quarterly basis since 2012 to increase the transparency of foreign exchange statistics.