Guo Shuqing, chief of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, is set to head the newly formed joint banking and insurance authority according to a report from Caixin.
China’s State Council recently unveiled plans to merge the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, in what marks the biggest change to the country’s financial landscape in fifteen years.
Sources have told Caixin that CBRC head Guo Shuqing will head the newly formed regulator.
61-year old Guo assumed the role of CBRC head in February last year, before leading a crackdown on the Chinese banking sector that kicked off with a flurry of new directives and regulations in March 2017.
Given his reformist credentials Guo was considered by many to be a frontrunner for the role of central bank governor in the lead up to Zhou Xiaochuan’s retirement, but the post instead has instead gone to deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China Yi Gang.
Policymakers hope that the merger of the banking and insurance regulators will improve efficiency and help to stamp out “regulatory arbitrage,” as well as enable authorities to better contend with an increasingly integrated Chinese financial sector.
