Better overseas risk management

The China Banking Regulatory Commission recently issued a series of specific requirements aimed at further strengthening the overseas risk management of Chinese financial institutions.

This is timely and also necessary, since the overseas branches of some Chinese banks have frequently been investigated by local financial authorities or police. On Feb 27, the Spanish police conducted a search of the Madrid branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China because of alleged insufficient supervision to prevent money laundering. Financial regulators in the United States, Britain and Germany also made regular or temporary inspections of Chinese banks' overseas operations.

More Chinese banks may face such checks in the future with the expansion of Chinese businesses in the international financial market, especially following the renminbi's inclusion in the International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights basket.