The National Administration of Financial Regulation is established on May 18, 2023 and is in charge of regulating the entire financial businesses excluding the securities sector, which is administered by China Securities Regulatory Commission.  Photo: VCG

Nameplates for all of the regional offices under the National Administration of Financial Regulation (NAFR) - China's main financial business supervisory authority - were unveiled on Thursday as planned, marking another important step forward in the nation's institutional reform of financial supervision.

Regional offices consist of 31 provincial-level bureaus, five bureaus in five megacities and 306 bureaus in prefecture-level smaller cities, the official website of the NAFR revealed.

The NAFR was established on May 18 and is directly under the State Council, China's cabinet. It is in charge of regulating the entire financial businesses excluding the securities sector, which is administered by China Securities Regulatory Commission.

The new financial sector regulator was established on the foundation of the previous China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, and certain functions of the People's Bank of China (PBC) and the China Securities Regulatory Commission were transferred to the new administration, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Since its establishment, the NAFR has strived to improve the quality and effectiveness of its services to back up the real economy, resolutely hold to the bottom line of preventing systemic financial risks, and deepen financial reform and development, the administration said on its official website on Thursday.

Analysts said the NAFR will help close some regulatory loopholes and ensure the sound development of China's vast financial services sector.

China's financial depth, which measures the size of the financial sector relative to the economy, has reached a fairly high level, industry analysts said.

The establishment of the new regulator is seen as an important move to deepen structural reform in the financial regulatory sector, strengthen and improve the country's modern financial regulation, and promote full coverage of financial regulation in the sector, Xinhua reported.

By the end of 2022, the total assets of China's financial institutions reached 419.64 trillion yuan ($59.45 trillion), according to statistics released by the People's Bank of China, the central bank, in March.

Analysts noted that preventing systemic financial risks is a primary goal of NAFR and its regional offices. 

Global Times