The banking regulator has urged commercial banks to make further efforts to strengthen market risk management.

The management capacities on market risks by commercial banks has been considerably enhanced in recent years, but "there are still many weak points that need to be addressed", said the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) in a notice yesterday.

The CBRC requires all commercial banks to take measures, like appointing special executives and creating independent departments with experienced staff members to manage market risks, before April 30.

Commercial banks' boards of directors or special committees under the board should be responsible for mapping out strategies or policies to cope with market risk management and should listen to reports on the issue for the whole bank at least every six months, the CBRC said.

Commercial banks should bring their overseas operations under their market risk management and establish a unified information system.

The regulator also required commercial banks to establish timely and effective reporting and analysis systems and emergency-dealing systems.

(China Daily January 12, 2007)