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China picks owners for 5 new private banks
By JOE McDONALD
BEIJING - Companies including Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent have been picked to set up China's first five privately owned banks, the industry's chief regulator said Tuesday.
The banks, part of sweeping reform plans announced last year, will be expected to operate independently and according to market principles, said Shang Fulin, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission.
Regulators announced last year that Beijing would allow the creation of privately financed banks as part of efforts to make the economy more productive by giving market forces a bigger role.
An overhaul of China's state-dominated financial system is expected to be at the core of changes the ruling Communist Party says are the most ambitious since the launch of market-style reforms in 1979.
Reform advocates complain state banks are holding back the world's No. 2 economy by failing to lend to entrepreneurs who create its new jobs and wealth.
Premier Li Keqiang, the country's top economic official, promised this week to give market forces a "decisive role" in allocating credit and other resources in hopes of nurturing more sustainable long-term growth.
Each new bank will be expected to have at least two private investors, Shang said at a news conference. He said preparatory work still was underway and gave no timetable for when they would open.
Alibaba Group is one of the world's biggest online commerce companies. Tencent Holdings Ltd. is China's most popular online games service. Both have launched popular online financial services that have drawn deposits away from banks by paying higher interest.
Critics accuse them of hurting state-owned banks and a commentator for state television called them "financial parasites." But Li, the premier, threw the party's support behind them, pledging in an annual policy speech this week to promote growth of online financial services.
In addition to Alibaba and Tencent, the ruling party newspaper People's Daily said the 10 companies picked in the first group to invest in private banks include Wanxiang Group, an auto parts maker; Fosun Group, a conglomerate that owns French tourism company Club Med and Huabei Group, a real estate developer.
The new institutions will be expected to focus on lending to small- and medium-size companies, Shang said, using the Communist Party's term for private business.
They will be required to have adequate risk controls, reserves to insure against losses and a "living will," or plans to wind up a failed bank, to prevent the burden from falling on taxpayers, Shang said.
Also Tuesday, the central bank governor said Beijing is likely to ease controls on interest rates paid on bank savings within two years. That would allow banks to compete for deposits and put more money in Chinese families' pockets.
"Liberalization of deposit rates, this should be the last step in interest rate marketization," said Zhou Xiaochuan. "I personally believe it is very possible to realize this within one to two years."
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