New bond regulations unveiled

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) and the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) announced new regulations allowing commercial banks to issue subordinated bonds. They said banks would have to have core capital ratios of 5% or above to issue on China's interbank bond market, and ratios of 4% if issuing bonds privately. PBOC officials said the regulations will allow banks access to additional methods of raising capital and will increase public scrutiny of them, giving them incentives to improve management practices.