China's insurance regulator said on Wednesday it has doubled the amount insurers can invest in private equity, part of efforts to broaden their investment scope.

Insurers will be permitted to invest up to 10 percent of their total assets in private equity compared with 5 percent previously, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said in rules published on its website. That confirms a previous Reuters story.

The move would potentially unleash about $50 billion of fresh capital into unlisted firms.

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