The Ministry of Labor and Social Security has issued a full range of regulations to allow corporate annuity fund management businesses to begin operations later this year.

Rules on the qualifications for corporate annuity fund manage-ment institutions take effect March 1.

The ministry would begin taking applications in mid-May, Chen Liang, an official in the ministry's fund supervision division, was quoted as saying in domestic media.

The regulations issued over the weekend complement previous regulations issued by the government in the past year on how corporate annuity funds can manage their investments, namely in domestic stocks.

Around 22,000 corporations in China had developed corporate annuities with aggregate funds of about 50 billion yuan (US$6.04 billion), the China Securities Journal reported Saturday.

The funds were mostly invested in bank deposits, bonds and commercial group insurance, the report said.

Saturday's regulations cover the operational procedures and the qualifications for entities that would manage corporate annuity funds, including securities companies, fund management firms, investment trusts and insurance asset management companies.

Qualified brokerages must have a minimum registered capital of 1 billion yuan and at all times must have net assets totaling at least 1 billion yuan.

Other qualified institutions, including fund or insurance asset management companies or invest-ment trusts, must have registered capital of at least 100 million yuan and net assets of the same amount at all times.

The rules also set out criteria for custodian institutions and managers of the funds' accounts, such as banks.

Applicants must be approved by the ministry, while another set of rules detail the qualifications for a review committee that will be in charge of the approval process.

The committee will comprise 48 members, including individuals from China's top securities, banking and insurance regulatory agencies and related national associations, as well as the Minis-try of Finance.

At least nine members must be present for a review, the rules state.

(Shenzhen Daily February 8, 2005)