Shanghai will strive to draw capital to accounts held in the city's pilot free trade zone, and encourage more professionals and companies to work for the city, an official document recently issued by PBOC Shanghai Branch shows.

Under the new circular, an extended list of foreign and domestic talent and locally registered innovative firms will have FTZ accounts. Once set up, individual and corporate account holders can access incentives provided by Chinese lenders. Foreign individuals employed by local or international technology companies in Shanghai are also allowed to open a personal free trade account in Shanghai and enjoy cross-border financial services.

The new circular also allows MNCs to adopt a cross-border renminbi cash pool in the FTZ to provide services such as cash pooling and centralized payment to its subsidiaries. 

Zhang Xin, deputy head of the Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China, said the city aims to achieve a net capital inflow in 2016 via FTZ accounts and balance capital inflows and outflows to stabilize the financial market.

The depreciating renminbi prompted the market to be concerned over worsening capital outflow as the currency dropped over 3 percent against the US dollar since the end of September.

In order to lure inflows and stem market fears that financial reforms may slow, Shanghai will provide easier access to foreign exchange swaps in the FTZ, especially in innovation and cross-border investment.

"We will provide better terms to foreign exchange sales, regarding preferential policies," said Zhou Hehua, vice president of Bank of China's Shanghai branch in a conference last week.