China’s top financial authorities have announced that an ambitious overhaul of the licensing system for domestic banks and insurers will officially commence at the start of July.
The Chinese central bank and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) jointly issued the “Notice on Exchanging New Versions of Licenses” (关于换发新版许可证的通知) on 23 June.
According to the Notice banking and insurance legal person institutions in China as well as their branches will be issued with new versions of their licenses starting from 1 July 2021, with the exchange period set to last for one year.
Starting from July Chinese authorities will issue just three types of licenses – financial licenses (金融许可证), insurance licenses (保险许可证) and insurance intermediation licenses (保险中介许可证).
Financial licenses will be provided to banking sector institutions including policy banks, large-scale banks, joint-stock banks, municipal commercial banks, private banks, foreign invested banks and rural village banks, as well as their respective branches.
They will also be provided to certain non-bank financial institutions and their respective branches, including:
- Financial asset management companies.
- Trust companies.
- Enterprise group financial companies.
- Financial leasing companies.
- Vehicle finance companies.
- Currency brokerage companies.
- Consumer finance companies.
- Bank wealth management companies.
- Financial asset investment companies.
The insurance license will be provided to insurance groups, insurance companies, insurance asset management companies and their respective branches, while the insurance intermediation license will be issued to insurance agency groups, insurance brokerage groups, specialist insurance agency companies, insurance brokerage companies and other insurance intermediaries.
