China’s financial system dogged by a corrupt alliance of cats and rats, central bank discipline chief says
People who serve only their personal interests are ‘problems big enough to shake the foundations of the country’, Xu Jia’ai says
A corrupt alliance of “rats and cats” is to blame for the lack of order and heightened risk within China’s financial system, the newly appointed head of discipline at the country’s central bank said on Thursday.
In comments published on the website of the Communist Party’s Central Commission of Discipline Inspection, Xu Jia’ai said the financial industry was “facing a number of significant risks, including a ‘cat and rat league’ [of regulators colluding with wrongdoers], rampant ‘unlicensed driving’ [of financial activity] and high levels of illegal fundraising”.
Xu was appointed discipline inspector at the People’s Bank of China in September. Although he had no previous experience in finance – he was previously head of police in east China’s Zhejiang province, where President Xi Jinping worked and built his power base – his appointment was seen as a likely precursor to sweeping changes within the industry.
Xi has made no bones about his intent to tackle the growing problem of financial risk in the world’s second-largest economy, and clean up a sector that has witnessed damaging levels of volatility on its way to massive growth.
