Beijing regulators exercise credit control

The innate conservatism of China's financial authorities has hampered the development of the country's credit markets, but bankers hope regulatory changes being passed will enable this sleeping giant's vast potential to be tapped. Alan McNee reports

With a booming economy, massive demand for assets from domestic investors and a history of financial sophistication, China should represent one of the world's largest credit markets. However, in practice, a cautious regulatory regime and the tricky political issue of massive foreign exchange reserves and an undervalued currency have kept the amount of corporate bonds - as opposed to bank financing and government issuance - at a minimum.

Chinese bankers hope the advent of the country's first asset