CBIRC issues statement warning consumers on how they use credit
This issue is likely to become more important in coming years. The elderly are often the most vulnerable to these sort of scams, and China’s rapidly aging population…
China’s stock exchanges issue further fee reductions
Given that the Shenzhen exchange has extended its fee cuts to the whole country – from originally just Tianjin, Henan, and Shaanxi – there’s a good chance both the Shanghai and Beijing exchanges will follow suit at some point this year…
FSDC meeting stems market turmoil, leaders promise policy consistency
The FSDC is doing what it can to stop the stock market slide, and thus far its actions have been largely successful. However, there is a substantial difference between short-term rhetoric aimed at stabilizing markets and the longer-term reforms necessary to bring these pledges to fruition…
CBIRC to tell pension insurance firms to clean up risky, short maturity products
The regulation essentially asks for pension insurers to return to their roots: providing vanilla retirement savings products. For now, regulators’ objection to personal pension guarantee management products seems to mainly be about their short maturity rather than how they’re invested…
CBIRC releases implementation rules covering reserves of non-life insurers
As China’s insurance sector continues to grow, developing a robust framework for ensuring companies have sufficient reserves will be crucial to overall financial stability. An insurer’s failure to meet payouts on the policies it has underwritten could have severe knock-on effects throughout the financial sector and could damage consumer confidence in insurance more broadly…
China Everbright appoints new chairman
On March 4, financial media reported that Wang Jiang, president of China Construction Bank Corp. (CCB), had been tapped to serve as chairman of China Everbright Group Ltd…
CBIRC issues measures on agricultural insurance underwriting and claims settlement
China’s leadership is obsessed with food security as well as with rural revitalization and increasing farmers’ incomes. Developing robust agricultural insurance is an obvious (and World Trade Organization compliant) way to help farmers, insulating them from both bad harvests and market volatility…
NPC work reports show derisking and financial sector development remain priorities
The twin goals of derisking and continued financial sector development are interconnected. Cracking down on shadow finance and reducing local governments’ reliance on debt-fueled growth have been major policy pillars of Xi Jinping’s second five-year term (2017-2022)…
CBIRC chairman highlights accomplishments, outlines priorities for China’s financial sector
Faced with slowing economic growth and sluggish consumption, the Party has set stimulating investment and consumption as key policy goals for this year to support economic growth. Ministries, regulators and other government agencies are tasked with ensuring they align their work with those objectives which were detailed in the Government Work Report presented by Premier Li Keqiang to the National People’s Congress earlier in March…
CBIRC expands private pension pilot programs
Faced with a looming shortfall in the state pension system, Chinese policymakers have, over the past few years, been making a concerted drive to develop the private pension market to encourage people to save for their old age. The expansion of these pilot programs has taken place within a few months of their launch…
Macau adopts urban master plan for 2020-2040
Like most high-level GBA policy plans, Macau’s urban work plan is heavy on aspirations and light on specifics. It will remain for lower-level government bureaus to determine how exactly it will be implemented…
PBoC, regulators issue Five-Year Plan to develop standards for the financial system
Chinese policymakers have for years talked about building a modern economy, and improving the financial system is a core part of that long-term project. China’s financial system is certainly large – the country has some of the world’s largest banks, and one of the biggest bond markets and stock markets – but it’s far from efficient or modern, and officials often speak of the need to move from a “large” financial system to a “strong” and “modern” one…
CBIRC releases guiding opinions on digital transformation of financial sector
Building a digital economy has long been one of the Party’s priorities and digital transformation of the financial sector is part of that strategy. The guiding opinions, as is usual for this kind of document, offer broad principles and strategies, and more detailed regulations or orders will follow at a later date if necessary…
PBoC releases Q4 monetary policy report
The forward-looking elements of the report point at the central bank’s oft-stated desire to avoid large scale stimulus in favor of more targeted measures to specific segments of the economy, such as small businesses, agriculture, green projects, and rural areas…
Nine more banks approved for GBA Wealth Management Connect
Officially launched in September 2021, the WMC allows individuals living in nine cities in the mainland section of the GBA, to invest in approved wealth management products marketed and sold in Hong Kong and Macau and vice-versa…
Guangdong issues five-year plan for trade in services with implications for GBA integration
One of the major challenges in the development of the GBA has been achieving a reasonable degree of interoperability between the different legal and economic systems of Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangdong. As is often the case with five-year plans, the roadmap laid out by the Guangdong government is relatively high-level and lacking in substantive details…
CBIRC report highlights problems with personal insurance products
China is underinsured and the CBIRC is working hard to expand the personal insurance sector, pushing companies to increase the types of products they offer and encouraging the development of online insurance, among other efforts…
NDRC issues opinions on measures to advance GBA integration
Over the past two and half years, Shenzhen has been subject to a bevy of long-range, high-level policy documents pointing the way for its strategic development and granting it significant leeway to experiment with new policies. However, these policy prescriptions are more aspirational than instructional…
CBIRC issues new rules for management of IT outsourcing risks at banks and insurers
The new rules reflect financial regulators’ growing concerns over technology-related risks in China’s increasingly digitized financial system. Regulators are not only worried…
PBoC, CBIRC, CSRC issue final version of anti-money laundering measures
Members of the FATF are required to meet certain standards and obligations, and the 2019 report, which exposed serious shortcomings in China’s anti-money laundering regulatory framework and enforcement, was a wake-up call for China’s financial regulators to get their act together…