China in its hand

As Industrial Commercial Bank of China receives a $15 billion bailout from the government, the challenges in attracting foreign investment and strengthening the sector become ever more apparent. James Ockenden talks to the China Banking Regulatory Commission international department’s director general about controlling risk in the sector

The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) is still in its infancy. “It is only a two-year-old baby,” says the director general of its international department, Mingxhi Han. Formed in 2003, it took over the banking supervisory role from the People’s Bank of China, together with its compliance headquarters in Beijing, 36 regional offices, countless field offices and 25,000 staff across China.

“Compared with the CSRC and the CIRC [the securities and insurance regulators], we’re quite large,”