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Editor’s Note: An error in this analysis as originally published has been corrected.

China Development Bank (CDB) has invested an additional $270 million into British bank Barclays to maintain a 3.1 percent stake following the issuance of new stock, despite the fact that the State Council rejected the plan beforehand, Chinese business magazine Caijing reported July 28.

CDB is the China’s top policy bank, designated by Beijing to be its top banking vehicle in allocating state credit to areas that the Chinese leadership deems most needy. It plays a pivotal role in multiple priority internal initiatives — such as the development of a rural/micro banking system. With this latest foreign purchase, CDB has become the first large and strategically important financial state enterprise to step out of line on a matter that reaches outside China’s borders.