Financial sector reform to enhance performance

China will further open up its financial sector and experiment with financial reform in certain regions to better serve major strategies for regional development, officials said.

Fu Pingjiang, head of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission's Hainan office, said the regulator will push for capability improvements in the banking and insurance sectors in Hainan province to serve construction of the Hainan free trade port.

"During the process, we must learn from international practices, set out plans in line with the strategic position of Hainan, underline reform and innovation and stick to bottom-line thinking," Fu said at a news conference in Beijing on Thursday.

The CBIRC's Hainan office will step up efforts to introduce foreign banks and insurers, actively seek to attract capable investors that meet regulatory criteria to establish financial institutions, including property and casualty insurers, life insurance companies and reinsurance companies, in Hainan.

At the same time, the regulator will further improve the layout of non-bank financial institutions such as consumer finance companies and financial leasing companies, promote free and convenient cross-border capital flows step by step and build a modern financial system with a high level of global competitiveness that matches the Hainan free trade port, he said.

Just like Hainan, Shanghai will take action to attract more high-quality global financial institutions to deeply participate in the development of Shanghai as an international financial center. It will also intensify exploration for building a system of financial regulations that meets international standards and strive to be a pilot city in this regard, said Liu Qi, deputy head of the CBIRC's Shanghai office.

"We will grasp the opportunity of the 30th anniversary of the development and opening-up of Shanghai's Pudong to deepen pilot financial reforms in the Pudong New Area, strengthen the city's functions for global financial resource allocation via institutional innovation and provide a more powerful platform for the Yangtze River Delta region to participate in global value distribution by taking advantage of international markets and resources," Liu said.

The regulator will give banks and insurers the impetus to better support capital market construction and encourage them to play a bigger role in increasing the portion of direct investment among total investment, he added.