China’s CSRC pushes brokerages to build global banks and back tech self-reliance

China’s securities regulator has urged the nation’s brokerage industry to rev up the pace of cultivating top investment banks capable of competing on the global stage and better facilitate Beijing’s technological self-reliance drive as outlined in a critical five-year plan by the Communist Party.

Securities companies should redouble efforts to fulfil the goal set by Beijing of building China into a global financial powerhouse, while serving the tech self-reliance strategy by facilitating fundraising and mergers in sectors ranging from artificial intelligence to biopharmaceuticals and green energy, said Wu Qing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), in a speech posted on the regulator’s website over the weekend. The speech was delivered at a meeting organised by the Securities Association of China.

The CSRC would also ease restrictions on large and high-quality securities companies, allowing them greater access to leverage and capital, while applying differentiated criteria to smaller and foreign-invested firms in terms of ratings and business entry requirements, Wu said.

Wu’s remarks offer an insight into how China’s 14.5 trillion yuan (US$2.05 trillion) brokerage industry would develop and aid economic growth as the world’s second-largest economy shifted from credit-fuelled investments to technology as its new driver. Beijing laid out the goal of establishing several world-class investment banks in a document promulgated by the State Council in 2024, as competition between China and the US expanded from tech and trade to areas including finance and military defence.