Chinese regulator aims to prevent financial risks – Asia Times

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) said it would prevent financial risks in 2021 and unveil measures to encourage banks and insurers to ramp up support for the real economy.

To prevent and mitigate financial risks, the country’s top banking and insurance regulator urged the banking sector to keep the macro leverage ratio stable and strengthen the disposal of non-performing assets.

Calling for efforts to improve risk management and impose more severe crackdowns on illegal financial behavior, the CBIRC vowed to tighten regulation on shadow banking and internet finance.

Banking institutions will further improve their financial services and shore up small businesses with more loan issuances, it said.

These institutions issued new loans worth 19.6 trillion yuan (US$3.03 trillion) last year, up by 12.8% year-on-year. A total of 2.2 trillion yuan of new loans flowed to the manufacturing industry, data from the CBIRC showed.

Industrial profits

Profits for China’s major industrial enterprises edged up 4.1% to 6.45 trillion yuan in 2020 from a year earlier, official data showed Wednesday.

Major industrial companies in the country refer to those with an annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan from their main operations.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed the December profits of major industrial enterprises reached 707 billion yuan, up 20.1% from a year earlier. The growth rate was 4.6 percentage points higher than the reading registered in September. 

Foreign investment

The revised industry catalog that puts more sectors into the category of encouraging foreign investment took effect on Wednesday, showing that China is determined to open the door for more foreign investment to spur its economic growth.

The catalog was released by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce at the end of last year. It included 127 more items than the 2019 version. Up to 88 existing items were modified to expand their coverage.

New sectors added to the national-level catalog include respirators, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation devices, online education services and 5G mobile telecommunication technologies.

Company news

Richard Yu Chengdong, chief executive of Huawei Technologies’ consumer business group, would be in charge of Huawei’s cloud and artificial intelligence businesses, according to an internal notice issued by the Shenzhen-based company.

The move came as Huawei continues to reshuffle its business management team, as it works hard to maintain growth amid mounting restrictions imposed by the United States government.

Yu’s current post as chief executive of Huawei’s consumer business group will continue, meaning he will take the helm of Huawei’s smartphone, cloud computing and artificial intelligence businesses at the same time.

Tesla reported record deliveries in 2020 of about half a million cars, aided by the production ramp-up at its Shanghai Gigafactory which could make more than 5,000 Model-3 cars a week, according to the company’s financial report released on Wednesday.

For the full year, the company produced 509,737 cars and delivered 499,550 units, which the company said is in line with its guidance. 

The stories were compiled by Nadeem Xu and KoKo and first published at ATimesCN.com.