China’s new financial watchdog gets teeth to take on fintech risks
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The department’s main role will be to come up with development plans and risk supervision systems for information technology.
It will also have cybersecurity, data security, and critical information infrastructure oversight functions to promote the digital economy, according to a scheme released by the Central Institutional Organisation Commission.
Reflecting Beijing’s emphasis on financial stability, the new oversight body will also have greater responsibility for tackling illegal financial activities and protecting consumer rights.
The restructure is picking up pace and expected to be completed by the end of this year.
In the overhaul, the NAFR absorbed the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) and some functions from the securities regulator and the central bank.
The changes give the NAFR greater responsibility to combat illegal financial practices, including giving advice on cases that involve new business models and multiple localities and ministries.
The powers of the Financial Consumer Protection Bureau have also been expanded under the NAFR following a number of high-profile scandals, including last year’s Henan rural bank run in which 40 billion yuan (US$54.7 billion) in deposits disappeared.
“There is no blind corner and no exception in financial supervision,” NAFR officials said in a statement released on Saturday after a two-day meeting.
Amid concerns about growing piles of local government debt and a property market crisis, the officials also pledged to “actively cooperate to resolve local debt risks, and promote a virtuous cycle of finance and real estate”.
As part of a broader push to crack down on corruption, graft-busters have refocused attention on the finance sector, with at least 100 officials and executives in the financial sector brought down this year alone, according to cases documented by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
In the past two weeks, six cadres have been put under investigation or punished, including Zhang Hongli, a former vice-president at the nation’s largest bank, ICBC, for alleged violations of discipline and law.
The party has tightened control over finance and technology in recent years to install a more centralised leadership and to tackle elevated economic risks and challenges.
Institutional changes in the financial system announced previously included the establishment of the Central Financial Commission under the party’s top decision-making body, the Central Committee. Vice-Premier He Lifeng is the head of the commission’s office.
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