Former bank chief urges regulators to be vigilant

Regulators should strengthen supervision of investment products and trading activities that exist in a regulatory void, a former bank chief said on Monday.

Yang Kaisheng, former president of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, said that the regulators should be vigilant against financial risks and increase the penetration of regulations.

As China deepens the reform and development of its financial industry, many investment products and trading activities exist across several financial sectors and require coordinated regulation by different government agencies, Yang said.

"We should be cautious about the potential risks, especially those that are not on the radar of the regulators," Yang told reporters.

The Chinese central government has made financial risk prevention a key task this year.

Premier Li Keqiang said in the Government Work Report on Sunday that China should be cautious about the accumulation of financial risks and should "build a strong firewall" against the risks.

Yang said the Chinese banking industry is capable of guarding against the potential risks and losses from the non-performing loans as the industry has maintained a NPL provision coverage ratio of more than 170 percent.