After the reform of the financial regulator at the first level is basically settled, the reform of the local financial regulatory system is accelerating.
Since the beginning of 2024, local financial committees and local financial working committees have been established in full swing, and local financial management bureaus have also been established. With the gradual implementation of top-down reform of financial regulators, a new pattern of coordinated financial supervision between the central and local governments is accelerating.
Financial commissions in many places have been intensively established
In November 2023, after the first public statement of the Financial Commission, the local financial committees and local financial working committees have been established one after another in recent times.
According to statistics, more than 20 provinces have set up local financial committees and local financial working committees. At the same time, the local financial management bureaus in many places have appeared one after another, co-working with the offices of the local financial commissions and local financial working committees, and the staffing and functional settings have gradually been clarified.
The reporter observed that the official website of the original local financial supervision and administration bureau in many places has been renamed, and most of them are the three brands of the local financial commission office, the local financial working committee, and the local financial management bureau.
In addition, according to the reporter's understanding, the five cities with separate plans are also successively setting up financial commissions at corresponding levels.
This is an important measure to implement the reform plan of the party and state institutions and deepen the reform of the local financial regulatory system. Dong Ximiao, a researcher at the Institute of Financial Research of Fudan University, said that the establishment of local financial committees and financial working committees will strengthen the party's leadership over financial work at the local level, and local financial supervision will be more closely linked and the system will be more perfect, which is conducive to strengthening the coordination between the central government and the local government and improving the efficiency of local financial supervision.
According to the "Plan for the Reform of Party and State Institutions" issued by the Communist Party of China in March 2023, the reform tasks at the * level will be completed by the end of 2023, and the reform tasks at the local level will be completed by the end of 2024.
With the establishment of the Financial Commission and the Financial Working Committee, the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration and local dispatched agencies have been listed one after another, and the reform of financial regulators at the ** level has been basically completed. Since the beginning of 2024, the long-prepared reform of the local financial regulatory system has gradually landed.
Experts believe that the coordination between the first departments and the coordination between the central and local governments is an important task of the first financial committee, the local financial commission and the financial working committee. In the handling of major risks, the local financial committees and financial working committees will play an important role in implementing their territorial responsibilities.
In accordance with the unified deployment of financial institutions, the financial regulatory departments in various parts of China have implemented the reform plan of financial institutions and promoted the acceleration of the formation of a new pattern of financial supervision in the new era. Huang Maoxing, vice president of the Fujian Academy of Social Sciences, said.
What is the radical reform?
In the new round of reform of financial regulators, deepening the reform of local financial regulatory systems has attracted much attention. Judging from the practice of financial supervision and risk disposal in recent years, the necessity and urgency of strengthening the coordination of central and local supervision are increasing.
Localities are an important battlefield for preventing and defusing financial risks. However, due to historical reasons, the local financial supervision and control force is relatively weak, and there are also contradictions in dealing with the relationship between financial development and strengthening supervision. Dong Ximiao pointed out that local legal person financial institutions are subject to the supervision of the financial management department, but the functions and powers of state-owned financial capital management, party building, discipline inspection and supervision are all in the local party committee, and the dispatched agencies of the financial management department and the local government are difficult to coordinate in the appointment and dismissal of senior executives and risk disposal.
At present, financial innovation is complex and diverse, and the task of risk prevention is still arduous, whether it is to strengthen financial supervision or prevent and resolve risks in key areas such as high-risk small and medium-sized financial institutions, all of which put forward higher requirements for strengthening the coordination of central and local supervision and improving the efficiency of local financial supervision.
The "Party and State Institutions Reform Plan" proposes to establish a local financial regulatory system dominated by the local dispatched agencies of the financial management department, and coordinate and optimize the setting and strength allocation of the local dispatched agencies of the financial management department. The financial regulatory agencies established by the local government are responsible for supervision, and will no longer be branded as financial work bureaus and financial offices.
In view of the lack of regulatory means and lack of professional talents in local financial regulatory departments, strengthen the power of financial management, and at the same time consolidate the main responsibility of local financial supervision, and the division of responsibilities between local financial supervision and local supervision will be clearer, and the regulatory efficiency will be further improved. Zeng Gang, deputy director of the National Finance and Development Laboratory, said.
In Zeng Gang's view, the necessity of central-local coordination is reflected in two aspects: daily supervision and risk disposal. * and local regulatory rules are not consistent, and regulatory arbitrage may occur. Only when the central and local governments exert their efforts in the same direction can the actions be unified and the policies be consistent, so as to truly achieve full coverage of financial supervision from horizontal to edge and vertical to the end. ”
Dong Ximiao said that adjusting and divesting the functions of local financial regulatory departments such as financial development and investment promotion can avoid them being both "referees" and "athletes", so that they can focus on supervision and risk prevention.
The disposal of risks of local small and medium-sized financial institutions is also inseparable from local **. Experts said that if local resources are not used, it is easy to have a situation where no one takes the lead or the efficiency of risk disposal is relatively low. Through the establishment of local financial committees, the responsibility of local party committees for territorial risk disposal can be consolidated, and the efficiency of financial risk resolution can be improved.
Li Yunze, director of the State Administration of Financial Regulation, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that under the overall leadership of the Financial Commission, he will work together to build a full-coverage financial regulatory system and mechanism, so as to share responsibilities, answer the same questions, and make efforts in the same direction to ensure that there are no dead ends, no blind spots, and no exceptions in supervision.
How to strengthen regulatory coordination and achieve real results?
Restructuring is only the first step. Under the new regulatory framework, it is not an overnight thing to build a scientific and efficient financial supervision system with local governments and realize the synergistic regulatory effect of "1+1>2".
A number of financial people believe that with the important steps taken in the reform of the local financial regulatory system, in the follow-up in specific regulatory practice, how to carry out in-depth and effective division of labor, coordination and cooperation between the financial regulatory departments and local party and government organs in daily supervision, risk disposal, resource allocation, etc., still need to be further explored and run-in.
Strengthening the construction of the first and local financial supervision and coordination mechanism has been carried out in the overall layout of the top-level design, and it should be optimized in specific practice. Tian Xuan, deputy dean of the PBC School of Finance of Tsinghua University, said that it is necessary to further clarify the boundaries between the first and local financial regulatory powers, improve the rule of law supply for the allocation of financial regulatory powers, and at the same time take the supervision of emerging businesses as a starting point to enhance the joint force of financial supervision and local supervision.
For the local government, it is facing the challenge of changing the concept and function of financial supervision. "Does not having a sign mean that you don't have to do your job? Who is responsible for local financial development and related financial services? A local financial regulator said.
There are still some questions to be answered. For example, in the prevention and disposal of illegal fundraising, there are overlapping responsibilities between local and financial regulatory departments, and how to do a good job in division of labor and coordination is still the key; Another example is how to strengthen the local regulatory force that has been relatively weak and improve the level of local regulatory capacity.
Experts believe that it is necessary to improve the supporting guarantee mechanism with a sound system and strong support. Strengthen the construction of legal safeguards for local financial supervision, and introduce local financial supervision regulations as soon as possible; explore the establishment of a regulatory evaluation system to encourage and protect the enthusiasm of local supervision; By enriching the local financial supervision force, we will improve the level of financial supervision capacity, and continuously enhance the safety of financial development with scientific, effective and effective supervision.