China’s most profitable brokerage, and until recently its largest by assets, has become the first mainland securities firm to enter the A-category under Fitch Ratings’ framework, a milestone in China’s efforts to build globally competitive investment banks.Fitch, one of the world’s three major ratings agencies, assigned an A-minus long-term issuer default rating with a “stable” outlook to both Citic Securities and its Hong Kong-based subsidiary Citic Securities International on Tuesday.Fitch’s A-category is its highest rating class; the B-category has historically been the ceiling for mainland Chinese brokerages.Prior to the rating upgrades on Tuesday, mainland brokerages were generally concentrated in Fitch’s BBB+ category, including China International Capital Corporation and China Securities.The development comes as Beijing seeks to build a “financial powerhouse” and “cultivate first-class investment banks and investment institutions”, goals that feature prominently in China’s 15th five-year plan and broader financial reform agenda.Wu Qing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, has also called on the industry to “strive to foster a number of leading institutions with significant international influence” during the plan period.