SHANGHAI, June 20 (Reuters) - China should further relax

data export rules, building on the recent easing of some curbs

for global firms enacted by the city of Shanghai, senior

executives from investment management firm Neuberger Berman and

global bank Citi told a forum on Thursday.

Foreign banks and asset managers have been lobbying the

Chinese government to allow cross-border sharing of information

after Beijing tightened control of data flows citing national

security concerns.

Last month, Shanghai launched a pilot project under which

companies registered in the city's Lingang Area may transfer

so-called "ordinary data" overseas without security assessments.

Andrew Komaroff, Chief Operating Officer of Neuberger Berman

Group, told the annual Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai that he

supported easing steps such as an additional review that could

pave way for the export of locally-generated research in China.

"We believe China should take further measures to safeguard

the sharing of essential data across borders, as opposed to

restricting its flow," he said, adding that cross-border sharing

of research would help "global teams across the world benefit

from mutual insights."

Currently, research reports and portfolio data generated by

global asset managers in China cannot be transferred offshore,

creating headaches for firms like Neuberger Berman, which owns a

mutual fund unit in Shanghai.

"Access to AUM data ... at the product level is really

important，not only for managing our own internal operations，but

also to help outside investors properly evaluate different

strategies and to assess the manager's strength," Komaroff said.

Marc Luet, head of Japan, Asia North & Australia Cluster and

Banking at Citi, also urged the Chinese authorities to

allow more data transfer.

"We'd encourage Chinese authorities to continue to work

closely with the market, including market participants such as

ourselves in further simplifying, streamlining those rules

around the issues of classification of data, thresholds and

scenarios for exclusions," he told the conference.

In addition, various Chinese regulators should have a

unified view on data security issues, as "dealing with multiple

frameworks is always more difficult, because it leads to

interpretation questions," Luet said.

China's data rules, published in 2022, require all

"important" offshore transfer of data related to operations

within the country to clear security reviews by the Cyberspace

Administration of China.

Last year, Fidelity International also said it was lobbying

Chinese regulators to relax stringent data security rules.

(Reporting by Shanghai newsroom)