China's new banking overseer issues flurry of directives

China’s new chief banking regulator, Guo Shuqing, has started with a bang, issuing a flurry of new policy directives during his first month aimed at the industry’s knottiest problems, in line with the government’s focus this year on managing financial risk, the Financial Times reports. The China Banking Regulatory Commission has issued seven policy documents in the past 12 days, in what state news agency Xinhua is calling a “regulatory windstorm.” Some were issued publicly, while others were sent directly to banks without public disclosure.  Several of the CBRC’s new policies focus on risks from shadow banking, notably the dizzying complexity of the high-yield investment products that banks sell to retail investors and corporations. The agency is also targeting lending between financial institutions in the interbank market. Shadow banks tap interbank funding to add leverage to wealth management products in order to offer higher yields.