New plan will strengthen regulation, protect consumers: PBOC governor

The reform plan to reorganize the country's financial regulatory regime can help better protect consumers' rights and should be well implemented, said Yi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank.

The plan proposes that financial regulatory bodies set up by local governments should specialize in supervision, which will be conducive to strengthening regulation, improving efficiency and better protecting consumers, Financial News reported Yi as saying on Thursday.

Yi, who is also a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, made the remarks on Wednesday during a group discussion on the reform plan, which was submitted to the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, on Tuesday for deliberation.

The reform plan seeks to establish a local financial supervision model that is dominated by local agencies of central financial regulators, while financial regulatory bodies set up by local governments should specialize in supervision and no longer function in the name of "financial work bureaus "or "financial offices".

Such arrangements are aimed at solving problems wherein some local financial regulatory administrations lack the necessary regulatory tools and professional talent, and the measures will help ensure those involved assume full responsibilities of local financial supervision, according to the plan.

Dong Ximiao, chief researcher at Merchants Union Consumer Finance Co, said the financial regulatory bodies set up by local governments will no longer shoulder the responsibility of promoting financial development and introducing more investment, but focus on supervision if the plan is implemented.

"This will be helpful in solving conflicts brought by the dual roles of local governments' financial regulatory bodies — they are now responsible for both supervision and development," Dong said.

Yi also said during the discussion that the essential feature of the socialist market economy is to adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China, which provides a strong guarantee for defusing risks, Financial News reported.

He added that the reform plan's requirements for improving the management of State-owned financial capital should be steadily and properly implemented, while feasible schemes should be made to achieve unified management of staff at financial regulatory bodies.

The reform plan has required that staff at the PBOC, the proposed national financial regulatory administration, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, as well as their branches and agencies, should all be managed and paid as civil servants.