The business scope of China's securities companies is expected to be extended, with the top regulator planning to ease a rule on approving brokers' branches.

"Securities companies that meet the requirements can launch branches on a national scale. The company itself can decide the location and number of branches based on the business type, scale and management capacity," said a statement from the China Securities Regulatory Commission on Saturday.

The branches include branch offices and sales departments, the statement said.

An official from the commission told the China Securities Journal it is looking at modifying the standards required to launch securities companies.

Such companies' business scope is likely to be expanded, which may lead to diversified competition between brokers, the official said.

The commission has approved 337 branch offices and 1,153 sales departments for brokers since 2008. By the end of October last year, the number of securities sales departments had reached 5,385, it said.