China's top banking and insurance regulators have reached retirement age, and a shake-up is expected as early as this week, three independent sources have said.
Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, and Wu Dingfu, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, have both reached the compulsory retirement age of 65 for officials who hold a rank equivalent to a minister.
Securities regulator Shang Fulin, 54, who has a reputation for caution, is the front-runner to replace Liu as CBRC chairman, said the sources, who requested anonymity.
Earlier, other sources said Jiang Jianqing, 58, chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world's biggest lender, was a candidate for the CBRC post. He's still viewed as a contender.
Barring a last-minute change, Guo Shuqing, 55, is tipped to take Shang's place as chief of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the sources said. Guo has resigned as China Construction Bank chairman due to "the need of state financial work," CCB said yesterday.
It was not clear who will take over the CCB post from Oxford-educated Guo, who earlier was also considered a possible central bank chief. CCB is the world's second-most valuable bank.
Xiang Junbo, 54, is expected to become the CIRC chairman, the sources said.
Xiang has resigned as chairman of the Agricultural Bank of China, the country's third-largest lender by assets said yesterday. He resigned for the same reason as Guo.
China has pursued a busy financial regulatory reform agenda over the years, easing controls over key sectors and prices, and launching a fledgling offshore market for the yuan in Hong Kong.
There are plenty of challenges for the new regulators to tackle.
The CBRC must ensure banking system stability while potential exposure to China's local government debt - estimated at 10.7 trillion yuan (US$1.7 trillion) - is worked out.
Meanwhile, the central government wants to neutralize the risks of a shadow banking system of business-to-business and high interest-rate individual lending.
A raft of reforms across the financial sector remain in the pipeline.
Source:china.org