CREDIT Suisse Group said China's securities regulator approved its investment-banking venture, letting the second-biggest Swiss bank participate in the domestic stock underwriting market that topped US$68 billion last year.

The Zurich-based bank owns 33.3 percent of the venture, and Founder Securities Co owns the rest, Credit Suisse said. It will also be able to underwrite foreign-currency shares, and government and corporate bonds.

China's market generated a record US$1.2 billion in equity underwriting fees last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.

The approval is the first since China announced rules in December that retained its 33-percent cap on foreign ownership of investment banks and restricted participation to publicly traded brokerages.

"This is a very important milestone in the implementation of Credit Suisse's ambitious Asia-Pacific growth strategy, particularly for a vitally important country like China," Kai Nargolwala, chief executive officer of Credit Suisse Asia Pacific, said.

Lei Jie, chairman of Founder Securities, a unit of Beijing-based Founder Group, was appointed chairman of the investment bank. Neil Ge, a managing director of Credit Suisse's investment banking in Shanghai, was named CEO.

New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Zurich-based UBS AG, the biggest Swiss bank, so far are the only global securities firms with management control of investment-banking units in China.

UBS's China venture was the third-largest arranger of domestic stock offerings last year, with 13-percent market share.

China had previously resisted opening its market further to foreign competition.