How Bourse Workers Staff an Equities Regulator

The most powerful agency under the roof at the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) is not the front office, not even the commissioner's chief of staff.

It's a small division with a dull name – the Public Offering Department – that processes company applications for initial public offerings on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets.

It's also a busy place to work: A 2011 CSRC report said the average department staffer spends 12 hours daily at his or her desk. Indeed, the department has been so swamped and short of staffers in recent years that managers have been forced to "borrow" workers from domestic stock exchanges, which are then required to pay their generous, CSRC-style salaries.