LexisNexis(TM) Academic - DocumentCopyright 2005 The Financial Times Limited
Financial Times (London, England)
June 18, 2005 Saturday
Asia Edition 1
SECTION: ASIA-PACIFIC; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 514 words
HEADLINE: China's central bank tightens control over financial reforms
BYLINE: By RICHARD MCGREGOR
DATELINE: BEIJING
BODY:
China's central bank has tightened its grip on top-level financial reforms, positioning itself ahead of the securities regulator to take a pivotal role in a long-awaited shake-up of the stock market.
The entry of the People's Bank of China into the highly contentious securities sector follows a battle with the Finance Ministry over the past 18 months to take control of key policies in reform of the large state banks.
The PBoC's key advantage in both sectors has been its access to the government's huge foreign reserves and other emergency funds which can be used at the discretion of the banks' Financial Stability Bureau.
The PBoC has used Dollars 60bn (Euros 49.9bn, Pounds 32.9bn) from foreign exchange reserves to recapitalise the three largest state banks and this week indicated it would tap into its resources to extend loans to two securities companies.
Central Huijin Investment, a financial holding company under the central bank, is also reportedly preparing a cash injection into China Galaxy Securities, the country's largest brokerage, as part of a scheme to bolster the securities market.
The PBoC's aggressive policy initiatives on a range of fronts, including an initiative for a stabilisation fund for the stock market, have confirmed Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank governor, as the most powerful official for financial policy.
"Zhou's intellectual authority means that the PBoC is the natural leader of reform," said Stephen Green, of Standard Chartered in Shanghai. "He also has close links with his seniors, which means he is generally trusted."
Mr Zhou, as a former head of China Construction Bank and the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the stock market regulator, has a personal network throughout the finance industry.
A senior CSRC official, who asked not be named, said yesterday that the PBoC under Mr Zhou was taking over some of the functions of the securities regulator.
In attempting to reform the banks, the PBoC and Liu Mingkang, the banking regulator, have long been at loggerheads with the Finance Ministry, previously the sole shareholder in the four big state-owned lenders.
The two institutions have argued that the Finance Ministry's heavy taxation of the banks, and its refusal to recognise realistic deductions to take account of capital set aside for bad loans, has impeded bank reform.
"(The ministry) disallows all sorts of costs that normal banks the world over can deduct as the costs of doing business," said an adviser to the Chinese industry.
The Finance Ministry has already lost battles with the PBoC over the state banks.
Huijin became the controlling shareholder in China Construction Bank and the Bank of China after cash from the foreign exchange reserves was used to recapitalise them. The ministry fought a rearguard action in the recapitalisation of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, retaining a 50 per cent share, with Huijin taking the remainder.
A resolution of the tax issue has yet to be announced, but the ministry has given ground by acknowledging the banking regulator's system for provisioning for bad loans.
LOAD-DATE: June 17, 2005