Securities Sector Growth in China Will Be Spurred by Share Registration Reforms: Chinese Central Bank Media

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The official news platform for the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has hailed the salutary impact of share registration reforms on the development of China’s capital markets.

“At present, deeper capital market reforms are ongoing, and reform of the registration system is the ‘nose of the bull’ for reforms,” wrote Yang Yi (杨毅) in an article published by PBOC’s Financial News on 16 June entitled “Securities Sector Strides into a New Era of High-quality Development” (证券行业迈入高质量发展新阶段).

“For the securities sector, registration reforms are both an opportunity and a challenge…the shift from an approvals-based system to a registration-based system will require that the securities sector both adapt and actively make changes.”

Li Jianfeng (李剑锋), chair and party chief of Nanjing Securities (南京证券), said that the registration system has already been successfully applied to the STAR Market Board in Shanghai and the ChiNext board in Shenzhen.

“In future it will also be further applied to the entire market, and the capital markets will gradually become the forefront for resource allocation in the market economy,” said Li to Financial News.

The move will mark a major step in the development of China’s capital markets, which have seen rapid growth since they first re-emerged a little over three decades.

China’s first specialised securities company – Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Securities (深圳经济特区证券公司) was established in September 1987, and was subsequently followed by the launch of both regional and national securities companies across China.

In 1990 the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges were established, marking the official start of nation-wide capital markets, while July 1997 saw the launch of the Securities Law (证券法), providing a legal framework for China’s securities markets.

As of the end of 2020 138 securities companies in China had total assets of 8.9 trillion yuan, 5.2 times the figure for the end of 2007, and net assets of 2.31 trillion yuan, 6.7 times the figure for the end of 2007.