Regulatory super-agency proposed

The State Council will consider a draft proposal to establish a financial "super-agency" to co-ordinate policy formation and oversight among the country's financial regulatory departments, the South China Morning Post reported. An inter-agency group comprising senior officials from the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission and the banking, securities, and insurance regulators have been meeting for several months to assess the feasibility of the new super-agency. An agency with regulatory oversight across the financial sector will become increasingly important now that Beijing is de-compartmentalizing the financial sector and dismantling walls erected in the early 1990s following a series of financial scandals. If approved, the new department is expected to be established at a top-level financial work summit to be chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao in November or December.