China has removed the head of its top financial regulator, state media reported yesterday, after markets in the world’s second-largest economy have been among the worst-performing globally in recent months.
Beijing has become increasingly worried about the sell-off on markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong, which has wiped trillions off valuations, and has unveiled a string of measures to try to staunch the rout.
State broadcaster CCTV yesterday said the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party removed Yi Huiman (易會滿) from his position as chief of China’s Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the country’s top financial regulator.
Photo: EPA-EFE
That came a day after, according to Bloomberg, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) was due to meet with regulators to discuss efforts to lift the markets.
Yi, a former chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (中國工商銀行), was appointed to the top job at CSRC in January 2019.
Wu Qing (吳清), a banking and regulation veteran who earned the reputation as “the broker butcher” when he led a crackdown on traders in the mid-2000s, is replacing Yi, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
China, which recorded one of its lowest growth rates in three decades last year at 5.2 percent, has been hammered by a crippling property crisis, sluggish consumption and global turmoil, and officials have been under pressure to unveil more stimulus measures to kickstart business activity and get consumers spending again.
On Tuesday, stocks in Hong Kong and Shanghai soared after Central Huijin Investment Ltd (中央匯金) — the unit that holds Chinese government stakes in major financial institutions — said it would increase investments in funds.
That was followed by an announcement from the CSRC that it would urge more action from long-term funds and call on listed firms to ramp up re-purchase.
Shanghai stocks extended their rally yesterday.
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