BEIJING - China's financial institutions received 11.68 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) of net direct investment from overseas investors in the third quarter, the country's foreign exchange regulator said on Monday.

This was lower than the 12.2 billion yuan in the second quarter, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).

Meanwhile, the country's financial institutions, including banks, insurers and securities firms, made a net investment worth 305 million yuan overseas.

The SAFE has been releasing data on a quarterly basis since 2012, as part of the regulator's efforts to increase the transparency of foreign exchange statistics.

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