"The universal financial operation is a trend in China, and individual investment products are the joint linking the banking, insurance and securities industries," Wu Xiaoling, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China told a forum held by the Shanghai National Accounting Institute on Saturday in Shanghai.

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The three regulatory agencies should cooperate to roll out unified rules on individual investment products, offering a standard regulation that may help individual investors to make their investment decisions, she said.

In China, banks can now sell insurers' products while insurers also offer investment-linked products in which a certain proportion of the money may be invested in the stock market.

For instance, Wu said the stock-oriented investment products now sold by banks, in which lenders pool clients' money together and invest in the stock market, are actually mutual funds and the stock regulator - the China Securities Regulatory Commission - should also monitor them.

"China's stock market gains have masked conflicting and inadequate regulations in the financial sector," Wu said.

Banks are now under the supervision of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, irrespective whether their products are actually in the form of funds or they sell insurance policies on behalf of insurers.

A CBRC official said earlier last week that some domestic banks sold individual investment products to clients without really knowing investors' needs.

She also noted it is unlikely that a universal regulator to supervise China's financial sector in the near term would be set up. Even when such cross-industry regulator is set up, there will still be individual regulators in charge of their separate regulated industries under its umbrella.

Universal financing is emerging in China and Shenzhen-based Ping An Insurance (Group) Co and Shanghai-based Bank of Communications are two of the big domestic players that have shown interest in this trend.

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