Beijing warns China’s US$63 trillion financial sector: serve the real economy and enrich lives

To stabilise the economy and shore up innovation, China’s leadership is taking a more heavy-handed approach to financial governance

Analyst says People’s Daily commentary mainly points to risks in China’s huge shadow banking industry that has filled the gaps left by the traditional banking sector

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Chinese state media is calling on the nation’s banks to offer more support for green development, which includes renewable-energy sectors that produce solar panels and wind-turbine parts (pictured). Photo: Xinhua

Published: 8:00pm, 23 Feb 2024

China’s financial sector needs to focus on supporting the real economy and must refrain from “fake financial innovation”, state media has proclaimed amid a tightening of regulations as Beijing seeks to flex its financial might.

In what is widely believed to be a warning against capital idling and speculative activities by banks and lending institutions, People’s Daily called for the 453-trillion-yuan (US$63 trillion) financial sector to be more dedicated to technological innovation, advanced manufacturing, green development and small enterprises.

Financial institutions should avoid “letting money circulate within the sector” for the sake of arbitrage, and should not allow themselves to be distracted from the real economy, the Communist Party mouthpiece said in a commentary on Friday.

The warning came as regulators toughened rules governing quant trading – which utilises strategies generated by computer algorithms and involves the rapid buying and selling of securities – while also addressing concerns over the fragility of the nation’s financial system against the backdrop of a local debt mountain, property slump and stock market chaos due to the pull-out of overseas capital.

Zhao Xijun, a finance professor at Renmin University in Beijing, said the article was mainly pointing to risks in China’s huge shadow banking industry that has filled the gaps left by the traditional banking sector, such as peer-to-peer lending schemes that collapsed and “damaged social stability” in the past few years.

“Now some companies are taking advantage of the low interest rate for bank loans, borrowing from traditional banks and lending the money at higher rates, and thereby leading funds to circulate in the financial sector without entering the real economy,” he said.