A reshuffle of the supervisory scheme of city and provincial-level financial enterprises is taking place in some of China's municipalities and provinces, as the reform of the state-owned assets management system sweeps into the financial sector.

These financial institutions, with the local government as the major investor - such as banks, securities houses and trust firms - are being put under the supervision of local state assets watchdogs.

The change is taking place in Beijing, Tianjin, and Chongqing municipalities and Heilongjiang Province.

The institutions had previously been supervised by a separate agency. The change is hoped to improve management efficiency in the sector.

In the past, these financial assets were normally supervised by a special department, such as the local financial work committee, and were outside the remit of the supervisory scheme of other state-owned assets.

But there has been a growing demand to unify the schemes since the authorities started to build a new supervisory system for State-owned assets two years ago with the establishment of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

More than a dozen financial enterprises in Beijing, previously controlled by the municipal government, including the Bank of Beijing, Beijing Securities, Beijing International Trust and Investment Corp and China Securities, are now directly supervised by the SASAC of the Beijing municipal government.

The original municipal financial office and financial work committee were recently dissolved.

"The reshuffle, decided at the end of last month, is currently being implemented," said an official who previously held a senior position in the former Beijing Financial Work Committee.

The transition will soon be completed, he told China Daily.

Some parts of the committee have merged with the Beijing SASAC, and relevant staff are being redeployed.

In Tianjin and Chongqing, similar streamlining is also taking place. And the reshuffle will also reach out to northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, according to sources with the local state assets supervisory bodies.

However, the reshuffle of the regulatory scheme is unlikely to affect the "big four" state-owned banks and other financial conglomerates that are directly supervised by the central government, insiders said.

The daily operations of the "big four" are supervised by the China Banking Regulatory Commission and their assets are controlled by the Ministry of Finance, said a source familiar with the issue.

The SASAC, which acts on behalf of the state as the investor in around 180 of the most important and largest state-owned enterprises, also has no plan to take over the "big four" banks or other central financial enterprises in the near future, said a commission official.

(China Daily January 21, 2005)