China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) Chairman Liu Mingkang said yesterday he is "cautiously supportive" of a plan by the country's banks to manage insurers, in a sign that the government may ease rules to allow financial institutions to expand into more businesses.

"Banks that want to engage in these businesses must possess good strategies, robust risk control policies and strong management," Liu said at a conference yesterday organized by the People's Bank of China in Beijing. "The benefits of their expanded business must outweigh the sum of their parts so that one plus one makes three."

Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Bank of Communications have applied to the regulator for permission to set up insurance ventures.

The nation's insurance market may triple to 5 trillion yuan (US$639.4 million) in assets by 2010, with the premium doubling in the next five years, as economic growth encourages more citizens to buy protection and investment plans from commercial insurers.

In February 2005, the Chinese Government agreed to let banks set up fund management companies, ending a 12-year ban on their involvement in the stock market.

In April 2005, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Bank of Communications became the first lenders approved to set up fund management units with overseas partners.

Chinese banks get more than 90 percent of their earnings from interest income the difference between what they pay depositors and charge on loans. That compares with 65 percent for overseas rivals, according to China Chengxin International Credit Ratings Co, a domestic credit rating company.

The People's Bank of China said it is evaluating draft regulations to establish an insurance plan to protect depositors from bankrupt financial institutions. Bad loans among China's banks totalled 7.3 percent of the country's total lending at the end of September.

"We are accelerating the pace of studying the law and we hope to make some progress next year," People's Bank of China Vice-Governor Wu Xiaoling told yesterday's conference.

The Chinese central bank, through the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, is also the manager of the world's biggest holdings of foreign reserves, which surpassed US$1 trillion at the beginning of November. China holds several types of overseas currencies among the reserves, including the Japanese yen, Wu said.

The government may set up a new agency to manage the reserves, modelling it on the Singaporean Government's Temasek Holdings Pte, according to Li Rongrong, chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

Temasek, 100 percent owned by Singapore's Ministry of Finance, had an estimated S$90 billion (US$55 billion) in assets as of last year, controlling companies that accounted for 44 percent of the Straits Times Index.

Companies that Temasek owns stakes in include 57 percent of Singapore Airlines Ltd, the world's second-biggest carrier by value. Temasek owns 28 percent of DBS Group Holdings Ltd, Southeast Asia's largest bank. The state-owned investment agency even owns hotels such as the Raffles Hotel and the Singapore zoo.

(China Daily December 27, 2006)