Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas have become the first foreign banks to gain Beijing’s approval to lead underwriting for all kinds of onshore debt in China — the latest high-profile reform this year aimed at opening the financial sector of the world’s second-largest economy.

China’s National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors, which regulates the interbank bond market, said in an announcement dated Monday that the two banks had been granted type-A licences, allowing them to underwrite all varieties of renminbi-denominated debt for both local and foreign companies.

The licences grant greater access to China’s Rmb93tn ($12.9tn) domestic bond market, the latest move by Beijing to counteract a trade war with the US and concerns locally over hidden risks in the Chinese banking system.