The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), the country's forex regulator, announced on Thursday a nationwide expansion of a pilot scheme among payment services providers enabling foreign-exchange settlements in cross-border e-commerce.

The pilot was put in place by SAFE in 2013 across five regions including North China's Beijing, East China's Shanghai, and Southwest China's Chongqing municipalities; Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province; and East China's Zhejiang Province.