New China regulator will help firms tackle challenges and threats

China’s new financial regulator, the National Administration of Financial Regulation (NAFR), has been officially launched.

The government said the NAFR marks an important step for China as it looks to further strengthen and improve its financial supervision through an institutional reform. The new authority will strengthen institutional regulation and supervision, it said.

It will also provide strong support and protection for organisations, thus promoting high-quality development, said Li Yunze, Party secretary of the administration.

“The NAFR must comprehensively implement the three major tasks of serving the real economy, preventing and controlling financial risks, and deepening financial reforms,” said Li. “It should legally bring all kinds of financial activities under regulation, strive to eliminate regulatory gaps and blind spots, vigorously promote regulatory coordination among central and local governments, and firmly hold the bottom line of no systemic financial risks.”

Vice-Premier He Lifeng, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, attended the launch ceremony.

The NAFR, which will function directly under the State Council, China’s Cabinet, will fulfil the role of previously carried out by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission. “The establishment of the new regulator is expected to strengthen and improve the country’s financial regulation, and tackle some of the long-standing and prominent problems in the financial sector,” Xinhua News Agency has reported.

The new organisation is in charge of regulating the financial industry except the securities sector. It will take over some functions of the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Zeng Gang, director of the Shanghai Institution for Finance & Development, said “the main goal of the institutional reform for financial supervision is to achieve comprehensive regulation of various financial activities, improve the quality and effectiveness of financial regulation, effectively prevent and resolve financial risks, and firmly guard against systemic risks”.

And Wang Jiaqiang, a senior researcher at the BOC Research Institute, said: “The reform measures will enhance the coverage and penetrability of financial regulation, address long-standing issues such as regulatory gaps, regulatory overlaps and regulatory arbitrage in the financial sector, and promote unified and standardized financial products and services.”

The reform will help China strengthen financial risk management, prevention and disposal, crack down on violations of laws and regulations, and improve the quality and effectiveness of financial regulation, he said.

“Financial regulation has entered a new stage of strong supervision. The banking industry’s operational development faces stronger regulatory constraints but also expects a more stable financial environment,” Wang said.

 

Online sales up 13% year-on-year

JD, Alibaba and Vip.com were the top three Chinese companies in terms of online sales last year, according to a report by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association and Deloitte.

Total online sales of the top 100 companies surpassed 2 trillion yuan ($282.75bn), up 13.19% year-on-year, the association said.

In 2022, as China imposed Covid-19 response measures, policies designed to expand domestic demand and boosting consumer spending have online sales.

Last year, China’s online sales grew by 4% year-on-year to 13.79 trillion yuan. Specifically, online retail sales of physical goods reached 11.96 trillion yuan, up 6.2% year-on-year and accounting for 27.2% of China’s retail sales of consumer goods.

Online sales of the top 20 companies account for more than 90% of the total, the association said, adding the threshold to be included on the top 100 ranking rose to 500 million yuan.

“With deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy, demand for online consumption is expected to recover and grow, further promoting consumption recovery,” said an official with the association.