A few Chinese securities companies have filed applications for issuing short-term financing bills, according to Mu Huaipeng, director of the Financial Market Department of the Peoples Bank of China.

But the central bank official declined to disclose the specific number and the names of the applicants and other application details.

The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), the watchdog for the banking industry, issued Oct. 18 this year the Procedures for Management of Short-term Financing Bills of Securities Companies, which aimed to widen financing channels for securities firms that have been in serious difficulty owing to the bearishness of the securities market for more than three years.

The regulation is hailed as a substantial step to widen lawful financing channels for securities dealers, one of the nine-point guidelines set earlier this year by the State Council, China’s highest governing body, to develop the capital market.

Speaking at a forum on capital market and corporate governance last week, Mu also disclosed that aside from piloting the scheme for conversion of assets into securities, which may start next year, related departments are considering the introduction of a market maker system on the bond market, so as to promote the development of the Chinese bond market.

It is learned that the value of bonds under custody on China’s interbank bond market now stands at some 4 trillion yuan (US$483 billion), which includes 1.9 trillion yuan of treasury bonds, 1.2 trillion yuan of policy-oriented financial bonds, and 2.5 billion yuan of corporate bonds.

(Shenzhen Daily December 6, 2004)