The central government has decided to set up a China Banking Regulatory Commission that will be headed by Liu Mingkang, currently president of the Bank of China, reported Xinhua Financial Network. Xiao Gang, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, was expected to replace Liu as Bank of China president and Li Wei, secre-tary to outgoing Premier Zhu Rongji, would be made deputy chief of the banking regulatory commission.
The new body will take over supervision of China's 118 commercial lenders from the People's Bank. Liu Mingkang, who perfected his English during a three-year posting in London, worked at Bank of China in the 1980s and rejoined in 2000 after stints as president of the state-controlled investment company China Everbright and as deputy governor of the central bank.