Individual investors will be able to buy stakes of 2 percent in rural lenders, up from the existing 0.5 percent, as the government tries to boost rural financing, the regulator said on Friday.

Zang Jingfan, a senior official with the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), said the policy is part of new guidelines for the reform and opening of its rural cooperative fund associations - currently the lowest-level organizations in China's financial system.

The regulator will also allow cross-provincial investment in rural cooperative fund associations as part of efforts to boost the development of rural lending, Zang said.