Chinese bank employee convicted of ‘leaking state secrets’ after sharing policy draft on WeChat
- Langfang Bank employee seconded to the China Banking Regulatory Commission photographed the draft of a new wealth management product regulation
- The draft quickly went viral via WeChat, causing a ‘disastrous impact on China’s financial regulation’
China has convicted a local bank employee of “leaking state secrets” after she shared a draft of a top secret financial policy document with people outside the government, according to a recently released verdict.
The draft was widely circulated on social media and later reported by Bloomberg and “had a disastrous impact on China’s financial regulation,” the court’s written ruling said.
The document, drafted by the central bank and titled “Guidance on Regulating the Asset Management Business of Financial Institutions”, aimed to apply macroprudential oversight to China’s unwieldy asset management industry, which controls over 100 trillion yuan in assets. Specifically, it banned financial institutions from guaranteeing that investments would break even or offering excessively high returns on wealth management products.
Li was given a one-year suspended sentence by Jizhou District Court in Hengshui, Hebei province, meaning she will not spent time in prison unless she commits anther offence.
The draft was still in an early stage of development and internal consultation, and it was classified clearly as confidential on the first page.
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the issuance of asset management products in China, with promises of much higher returns than available from regular bank deposits. The authorities had encouraging this as part of its financial liberalisation policy, aimed at lessening the dependence on the banking system for fundraising.