China vows tighter rules to clip wings of big finance firms
Central bank chief says government mulling fresh regulations to rein in excessive risk taking and speculation at financial conglomerates and holding companies
The Chinese government is working on new rules to control the country’s big financial firms and holding companies to curb the massive risks generated by the conglomerates’ speculative investing, China’s central bank officials and senior political advisers said.
Zhou Xiaochuan, China’s veteran central bank governor, said on Friday that China’s financial holding groups covering the banking, securities, trust investment and insurance sectors were threatening financial stability through their risk taking and Beijing was in the early stages of making “some basic rules” to deal with the problem.
The rules will require more transparency from financial conglomerates, Zhou said at a press conference on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress in Beijing.
Pan Gongsheng, one of Zhou’s deputies, said at the same event that China’s regulation of such groups was currently “blank” and the authorities were finding ways to close loopholes.
A former senior official at China’s central bank, Hu Xiaolian, said at the press conference that regulators were taking a variety of approaches to defuse risks at companies with high levels of debt.