Guo Shuqing Named as New Head of Banking Regulator

(Beijing) — Guo Shuqing, former governor of Shandong province, will take the reins of the China Banking Regulatory Commission to become its new party secretary and chairman.

The decision was announced by the Communist Party’s Organization Department on Friday morning during a meeting at the banking regulator's office, multiple attendants told Caixin.

Shang Fulin, who has steered the banking regulator for almost six years, will retire.

Guo, a 61-year-old technocrat from Inner Mongolia, has an impressive résumé, with former roles including vice governor of Guizhou province, director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, vice governor of the People's Bank of China — the country’s central bank — and chairman of China Construction Bank.

He was appointed chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission in 2011 and under his leadership the regulator introduced a slew of market-oriented reforms. At its peak, the commission issued a new policy every week on average in 2012.

Guo was named Shandong’s governor in 2013. During his governance, he promoted a series of finance and taxation reforms in the province known as the “22 Items of Shandong Finance Reform.” Policies included deepening reform in a bid to improve fiscal transparency and revitalizing government assets and capital funds to increase economic returns.

Guo is known for his outspoken manner. He criticized the government’s practice of demolishing old buildings and erecting new ones as “demolition-natured construction” in 2011. Although property development can boost the country’s gross domestic product, he said, repeatedly demolishing and building new apartments doesn’t bring wealth to the public.

He enrolled in the prestigious Nankai University in the port city of Tianjin to study philosophy when the country restored college education in 1977, one year after the 10-year-long Cultural Revolution ended. He later received a master’s degree in Marxism–Leninism and a law doctorate from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Contact reporter Chen Na (nachen@caixin.com)