China replaces head of securities regulator amid market turmoil

BEIJING: China has replaced the head of its securities regulator, the official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday, as policymakers struggle to stabilise the country's main stock indexes after a plunge to five-year lows.

The cabinet removed Yi Huiman as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), replacing him with Wu Qing, a veteran securities regulator who had led the Shanghai Stock Exchange and served as a key deputy in Shanghai's municipal government, Xinhua said.

Yi's removal comes as Chinese markets are on a knife edge as investors large and small scramble to cut their losses, with the sputtering economy and a lack of forceful stimulus measures weighing heavily on confidence.

Numerous market-focused support measures such as restrictions on short-selling or reductions in trading duties have failed to staunch the selloff, as have a number of government statements promising support but lacking details.

Most big investors say they are waiting for a spending package to help households. There has been no official confirmation or denial of a recent Bloomberg News report of a mooted 2 trillion yuan ($278 billion) stock market bailout fund.

Foreign investors sold a net 18.2 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) in Chinese equities last month to notch a sixth straight month of outflows.

Prior to his stint as the head of CSRC, Yi was chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). He had been an ICBC stalwart, working at the state bank for more than three decades. He originally joined ICBC as a junior loan officer at a branch in Zhejiang province in 1985.

Wu also replaced Yi as the Communist Party chief at the regulator, according to Xinhua.

The announcement comes without a common term of "to be appointed to other roles" which usually suggests an outgoing chairman is moving to fill in another position, a former CSRC official said. - Reuters