China's banking and insurance regulator on Thursday issued guidelines to push financial institutions to improve their services for foreign trade firms.

China will encourage banks and insurers to maintain financial support for companies in the commodities, electronic equipment, and processing trade sectors, while step up their services for cross-border e-commerce and manufacturing upgrade, the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said in a document on its website.

The regulator also asked financial institutions to boost lending to small foreign trade firms.