The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has appointed two new deputy governors in a bid to shore up its in-house expertise on systemic financial risk as well as its broader influence, according to sources speaking to Caixin.
Sources speaking to Caixin said that PBOC has appointed Liu Guoqiang, formerly an assistant governor with the central bank, and Zhu Hexin, a former vice-president of the Bank of China, to serve as its new deputy governors.
One of the two new deputy governors will also be appointed deputy director of China’s Financial Stability and Development Committee (FSDC), which was launched in November last year as a coordinating body for China’s financial authorities.
FSDC is currently headed by Vice Premier Liu He and has two deputy directors, being PBOC Governor Yi Gang and State Council Deputy Secretary-General Ding Xuedong.
The appointment of another PBOC official to FSDC is expected to strengthen the Chinese central bank’s influence within the financial regulatory system.
The move comes following a far-reaching overhaul of China’s financial regulators in March, which saw the merger of the banking and insurance authorities and the conferral of greater power upon the central bank including the drafting of regulations.
Liu and Zhu both have multiple decades of experience in the Chinese financial system, although on opposite sides of the regulatory divide.
Liu worked at the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as a macroeconomics expert for 17 years starting from1984, before joining the Office of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs in 2001.
He was appointed assistant governor at PBOC in December 2016, putting him just one step below the position of deputy director, and reportedly has close relations with Liu He.
Zhu Hexin launched his career at the Bank of Communications in 1993, where he eventually rose to the position of general manager of the business department.
He became vice-president of big-four state-owned lender Bank of China in June 2015, before being appointed deputy governor of Sichuan province in 2016.
