Banking supervision authorities from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan on Monday jointly announced the establishment of a regular meeting mechanism to negotiate regulations for commercial banks doing businesses in each other's markets.

The leaders of the two sides' banking supervision bodies or other designated representatives will hold regular talks every six months, alternating locations between the mainland and Taiwan, according to a press conference in Taipei on Monday evening.

Fan Wenzhong, a spokesman for the mainland's banking regulatory agency, said that the two sides agreed on a procedure for daily communication, regular visits and procedures for spot inspections at banks.

The mainland regulatory agency hopes that its counterpart in Taiwan could gradually reduce the criteria for mainland banks to enter Taiwan' s financial market and give more freedom to established branches in the island.

Taiwan's regulator has agreed to actively consider the demand, a press release by the mainland's Banking Regulatory Commission said.

The mainland gave gestures of goodwill to proposals from its Taiwan counterpart at the meeting. The proposals would support Taiwan' s commercial banks in setting up more branches on the mainland and conducting more services, it said.

The press conference came after a four-hour closed-door meeting presided over by leaders from the mainland and Taiwan's banking regulators Chen Yuh-Chang and Liu Mingkang, who arrived on the island last week for the first official contact between the two sides.

It was the first time for banking regulators from the two sides to hold talks on cooperation in financial supervision.

It was also a step forward for the first time since 1949 for the mainland and Taiwan to send official agencies to hold direct negotiations, although the two regulatory bodies carefully avoided mentioning each other' s official names.