On April 14, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission publicly solicited opinions on the “Implementation Measures for Administrative Licensing Matters of Trust Companies”, and proposed to abolish the requirement for foreign financial institutions to invest in US $ 1 billion in total assets of trust companies.
In order to further implement the requirements of simplifying government decentralization and opening to the outside world, and strengthen the supervision of trust companies, the China Banking Regulatory Commission combined with market access work practices and industry transformation and development practices. The Implementation Measures for Administrative Licensing Matters of Trust Companies has been revised, and the “Implementation Measures for Administrative Licensing Matters of Trust Companies of China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (Draft for Comment)” (hereinafter referred to as “Draft for Comment”) is now open for public comments.
The “Exposure Draft” has 7 chapters and 77 articles. This revision focuses on the following four aspects:
One is to further standardize and clarify the standards for the admission of administrative licenses of trust companies, and strengthen the effective connection with other regulatory policies and guidelines.
The second is to implement a policy of further opening to the outside world and abolish the requirement for foreign financial institutions to invest $ 1 billion in total assets of trust companies.
The third is to continue to deepen the reform of “delegation, management, and service”, further promote simplified administration and decentralization, optimize the licensing process, and simplify application materials.
Fourth is to strengthen the guidance of supervision, match the development of the industry, encourage trust companies to develop their original businesses, guide trust companies to improve corporate governance, and promote the transformation and development of the trust industry.
On February 6 this year, the official website of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission officially released the “Interim Measures for the Equity Management of Trust Companies.” The quantitative limit threshold requirement for total assets of not less than US $ 1 billion. The liberalization of foreign market access restrictions will also facilitate the introduction of foreign investors. However, it is worth noting that in recent years, foreign shareholders in the trust industry have shown a tendency to “retreat.” As of the end of 2014, there were 11 trust companies with foreign shares. However, since 2015, the phenomenon of divestment or reduction of foreign capital from trust institutions has frequently occurred. As of now, the number of Sino-foreign joint venture trust companies has dropped to only 7.
Yuan Jiwei previously said in an interview with Peng Mei News that in recent years, regulatory authorities have strengthened the management of equity in financial institutions, regulated corporate governance of financial institutions, and ensured stable development. The “Measures” was also introduced under this general background and regulatory trend. The regulatory requirements for past trust company equity management are distributed in the “Trust Company Management Measures” and “Trust Companies””Corporate Governance Guidelines” and “Implementation Measures for Administrative Licensing Matters of Trust Companies” and other parts, this “Measures” integrates the previous regulatory requirements and recent regulatory requirements, and the overall content is relatively rich.