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Banking Reform Progresses

Banking Reform Progresses 

China's top banking regulator said on December 5 that China has made significant progress in restructuring its State-owned commercial banks.

Reviewing the country's progress in banking reform, Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), said the Chinese Government in April 2004 approved a pilot joint-stock restructuring of the Bank of China (BOC), China Construction Bank (CCB) and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).

He said CCB and the Bank of Communication (BOCOM) have been successfully listed on overseas capital markets.

The BOC and CCB have improved their business performance, asset quality and capital strength, and all of their regulatory indicators are also improving, he said.

ICBC, which has basically completed its financial restructuring with its balance sheet greatly improved and its capital base significantly strengthened, is now moving forward with the corporate-governance and internal-control reforms, the commission said in a statement.

Reform of China's rural credit cooperatives (RCC) has been under way since June 2003 in all of the country's provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, he said.