BEIJING - Overseas direct investment to China's financial institutions, including banks, insurers and securities firms, saw a net outflow of $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016, the nation's foreign exchange regulator revealed Thursday.

For the whole year, net outflow of overseas investment to the industry came in at $2.6 billion, according to data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).

Meanwhile, the country's financial institutions made a net outbound investment of $9.65 billion in overseas companies last year.

SAFE has been publicizing the data on a quarterly basis since 2012, as part of the regulator's efforts to increase the transparency of foreign exchange statistics.

Overseas investment to financial organs makes up only a small portion of overall foreign direct investment into China.

Earlier official data showed foreign direct investment to the Chinese mainland, excluding the financial institutions, maintained steady growth last year on the back of strong investment in the service industry.

Foreign direct investment rose 4.1 percent year on year to reach 813 billion yuan ($118 billion) in 2016.