The People´s Bank of China´s Research Institute of Finance and Banking and the British Embassy Beijing jointly hosted the China-UK Corporate Bond Seminar on 18 November in Beijing, supported by the National Association of Financial Markets Institutional Investors (NAFMII). Discussions built on the first joint seminar that took place in April this year, and covered topics including corporate credit bond product innovation, risk management and investor protection. Deputy Governor Hu Xiaolian and the British Ambassador, Sir William Ehrman, opened the event.
Deputy Governor Hu pointed out that although the corporate bond market was growing rapidly, China needed to introduce a wider range of bond products. Deputy Governor Hu said that while further developing high credit bonds, it was necessary to conduct study on developing high yield bond that bear some risks. This will help broaden the sources of financing for SMEs, promote independent innovation, mergers and acquisitions, and provide investors with a wider range of assets to invest in. Deputy Governor Hu stressed the importance of improving market transparency, building an investor base, strengthening corporate governance, and enhancing the regulatory framework if China is to promote corporate bond product innovation and to improve risk management in the corporate bond market. The British Ambassador, Sir William Ehrman, stressed that further development and liberalisation of the corporate bond market would play a positive role in achieving sustainable growth in China.
Vice-Governor Hu and the Ambassador both said that under the framework of the China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue, cooperation between the two countries was strengthened in the financial sector. In addition to corporate bonds, the PBC´s Research Institute of Finance and Banking and the British Embassy are running collaboration projects on non-bank lending and SME credit. The PBC and the Bank of England also recently held their second joint annual seminar on financial stability issues.
Speakers at the seminar included senior representatives of the People´s Bank of China, National Development and Reform Commission, China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission, China Insurance Regulatory Commission, the NAFMII, China Government Securities Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, CITIC Securities, China Chengxin International Credit Rating Co.Ltd.(CCXI) , Moody´s, Standard Chartered, HSBC, Clifford Chance, Barclays Capital, Standard & Poors, and Tsinghua University.
