Senior Rural Banking Regulator Turns Himself In to Graft Investigators

What’s new: Guo Hong, head of the Rural Small and Medium-sized Banking Institution Supervision Department of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), has turned himself in to graft busters, an official statement (link in Chinese) said Wednesday.

He was taken away by the authorities on Friday, sources with knowledge of the issue told Caixin.

The context: Guo, 49, had worked in a variety of positions in the now-defunct China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) until 2018, when the CBRC was merged with the China Insurance Regulatory Commission to form the CBIRC. The same year, he was appointed to his current position.

Regulators have worked to reform rural small and midsize banking institutions over the past few years in an effort to improve their management and defuse risks. China has over 2,200 rural banks and credit cooperatives with combined assets worth 38 trillion yuan ($5.8 trillion), according to CBIRC data (link in Chinese) released in August.

Related: Exclusive: China Takes Another Step Toward Fixing Its Corruption-Plagued Rural Credit Unions

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use. To read the full story in Chinese, click here.

Contact reporter Guo Yingzhe (yingzheguo@caixin.com) and editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)

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