Bank regulator tightens WMP control

China's banking regulator is tightening its control on wealth management products to increase transparency and reduce risk.

The China Banking Regulatory Commission confirmed to China Daily on Wednesday that all institutions are now required to report and register their newly issued WMPs on the regulator's system.

WMPs without this registration cannot be issued through any financial institution.

"The system has been put into operation," said an official who declined to be named.

Liu Hongyu, deputy director of the general office of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said earlier in Shanghai that the commission required banks to complete registering the WMPs issued between 2011 and 2012 by July 31.

In a speech delivered during the Lujiazui Forum, Shang Fulin, chief of CBRC, said that the next step would be "separating wealth management products from credit businesses, urging banks to clearly link WMPs with the assets that proceeds are invested in and increasing transparency".

He added that the commission will continue to regulate the WMP businesses in commercial banks, reinforce supervision and tighten risk control.

Bank-issued WMPs totaled 8.2 trillion yuan ($1.34 trillion) by the end of the first quarter, of which 70 percent were invested in the real economy.

In a notice unveiled in late March, CBRC required that investment in "non-standard" assets, meaning assets not traded on the inter-bank bond market or stock exchanges, should not exceed 35 percent of bank's total WMPs, or 4 percent of the bank's total assets at the end of the previous year.

CBRC also mandated in this notice that all individual WMPs must undergo auditing and banks must ensure products have balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements and other financial reports.

Jimmy Leung, Banking and Capital Markets Leader Partner of PwC China, said the healthy growth of WMPs requires stricter implementation of rules released by authorities.