It is revising existing rules and has drafted "urgently needed" regulations on a spectrum of issues including bank service charges, transactions of financial derivatives, market risk supervision, capital adequacy management and borrowings by conglomerates.

"These regulatory rules have been drafted, and (the CBRC) has solicited comments from commercial banks and other relevant parties," the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said in a statement.

The commission would "be quick to promulgate" those rules once the necessary procedures are finished, it said.

The CBRC will enact three sets of provisional rules in separate stages.

These rules respectively focus on commercial banks' charging standards for their services, the management of auto finance companies and financial derivative transactions by financial institutions.

Such rules are a step closer to international banking norms, reflect China's World Trade Organization commitments and help commercial banks improve their services and competitiveness, it said.

The arrival of foreign banks last year triggered heated debate on whether Chinese banks should follow their foreign counterparts and charge for services like deposits, which they had been offering free for years.

In addition, the commission said it plans to implement the internationally accepted five-category loan classification system at all banking institutions next year to "basically integrate with the international banking industry in two to three years."

A pilot programme for the reform of rural credit co-operatives has been approved by the State Council, and preparatory work for implementation is well under way, the commission said.

(China Daily June 18, 2003)