To implement the guidelines of the Central Economic Work Conference and improve the legal system of the bond market, on December 22, 2020, the People’s Bank of China (PBC) held a meeting on Improving the Legal System of China’s Bond Market. Pan Gongsheng, member of the PBC CPC Committee and PBC Deputy Governor, presided over the meeting. Officials from relevant departments of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), officials of the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (NAFMII), as well as relevant legal experts, lawyers and representatives from market institutions attended the meeting.
Attendees at the meeting unbiasedly analyzed the status quo of the legal system in China’s bond market, and exchanged views intensively on key issues, including the application of basic laws to the bond market, approaches on improving the bond market’s legal system, adjudication of bond-related cases in market operation, unified law enforcement, bond investor protection and information disclosure in the procedure of bankruptcy, and the prevention of malicious debt evasion of bond issuers.
Pan Gongsheng pointed out that the bond market has shown a sound development momentum over the past few years, and grown into the most open and vibrant sector within China’s financial market system, thus playing a significant role in increasing the share of direct financing, improving the efficiency of market resource allocation, and serving the real economy. Meanwhile, due to the short history of the Chinese bond market and its relatively rapid expansion, some of the basic rules and regulations have not properly addressed the characteristics of bonds thoroughly, and the legal system is not sufficiently systemic and sound, which requires us to make accelerated efforts to shore up weak links in the legal system.
Pan Gongsheng stressed that the PBC will work with relevant departments, the academia and the business community to resolutely implement the decisions and arrangements of the Central Economic Work Conference on enhancing the legal system of the bond market and promoting the sound development of the capital market. By focusing our efforts on addressing the problems in the legal system we will improve the legal system, comprehensively promote the rule of law, show “zero tolerance” for illegal acts, continuously enhance the credit basis, and contribute to the sound and stable development of the bond market
