TAIPEI (AFP) - China could allow its banks to widen access to Taiwanese lenders and remove current restrictions on branches opened on the mainland, Beijings banking regulation chief told local media on Sunday. Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, extended the olive branch upon his arrival Saturday, according to the Taipei-based Commercial Times. Liu and his Taiwanese counterpart Chen Yu-chang will hold talks in Taipei Monday in the first meeting since Taipei and Beijing set up a banking supervisory cooperation platform in Jan. According to Liu, under the pending new measures, Taiwanese lenders will be allowed to start doing renminbi business once they have opened branches on the mainland, the Times said. Existing measures require Taiwan lenders to open branches for a minimum of a year and become profitable before they are permitted to do renminbi business. Taiwan and its giant neighbour in 2009 signed a package of agreements on better cooperation in banking, insurance and securities, which went into effect in January last year. The agreements are eventually expected to make it easier for Taiwanese and Chinese banks to buy each others assets and to make it possible for Chinese investors to buy shares on the Taiwanese stock market. Six Taiwanese banks have set up branches in China and two others have opened up liaison offices there while four Chinese lenders have liaison offices in Taiwan. China still considers Taiwan part of its territory, even though the island has governed itself since 1949 at the end of a civil war. Ties between the two sides have improved markedly since Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang party came to power in 2008.