China's central bank said it has met with onshore lenders to discuss allowing them to trade in the offshore yuan market, a move that would accelerate convergence between the country's two exchange rates.

As the country increasingly opens up its currency market, Chinese commercial banks have a growing need for better integration between the onshore and offshore markets, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement on its official microblog.

Such a relaxation would mark another step to bring the two rates into line after China said earlier it will allow more foreign institutions to trade the onshore yuan. While moves in the onshore rate are influenced by a trading band anchored around the daily fixing and occasional intervention, the freely traded currency in Hong Kong has been more volatile. The gap between the two spot rates widened to a record in January as global investors rushed to sell the currency amid an abrupt weakening of the fixing.