A senior Chinese official says the merger of China’s banking and insurance regulators will help to expedite financing and investment for Beijing’s much-vaunted One Belt One Road initiative.
Speaking at the China Development Forum over the weekend Wang Zhaoxing (王兆星), vice-chair of the newly formed China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said that its creation would provide a surer foundation for the financing of One Belt One Road projects.
“Banking and insurance integration is of benefit to strengthening regulation and expediting the healthy development of the banking and insurance sectors,” said Wang according to a report from Xinhua.
“At the same time, this is of benefit to fully using the rational integration of bank and insurance credit, bank loan capital and insurance capital sources to provide short and medium-term financing to One Belt One Road, and even infrastructure development.
“Insurancers can provide long-term stable capital, while banks can both absorb short-term capital, and provide a source of some steady, long-term funds.
“New funding source integration and operation integration as well as risk management methods can provide more optimised, long-term and steady sources of capital for One Belt One Road.”
According to Wang the operation of Chinese-invested banks along the One Belt One Road initiative has helped to drive the opening of the Chinese financial sector and the innovation of new products, services and cooperative methods.
