As titled

1. The significance of understanding the dissertation topic is that China has become the second largest economy. Since China has reformed for three decades, and now is a key driver to the global economy. Given this fact, China can produce spillovers to other countries’ economy through channels such as trading, supply chain, foreign exchange reserve and offshore renminbi markets. In China, the stimulus package in 2008 fuelled the growth of shadow banking, which has played an important role to meet the demand from depositors looking for higher return and from borrowers who invest in real economy. 2. Characteristics in shadow banking were present in history that dates back to the 18^th century. Shadow banking activities proliferated during 1970 by a dominant form of structured finance –securitization. It is not until August 2007 that the term ‘shadow banking’ was introduced. After studying various definitions, shadow banking has the characteristics of credit intermediation involving savers and borrowers, thus it is subject to maturity mismatch; it is outside regular banking and has no liquidity support nor under any deposit insurance from government; it has little or no capital reserve requirement and is able to create money. Due to these characteristics, shadow banking can inflict a systemic risk on a financial system as a whole. It is interconnected by its relative size and multiple linkages. Thus the systemic risk that shadow banking causes to financial systemic can be concluded as susceptibility to ‘run’ the shadow banks and amplifying negative effect of high leverage. 3. The Chinese financial industry is monopolised by banks; financing activities are mainly conducted through the banking system. The government has high level of ownership and control over the five largest banks which are motivated to lend to state-owned enterprises. The private entities would gain the needed credit from shadow banks directly or via the financial products. Modified from definition of the FSB, China’s shadow banking should be defined as a system of chain intermediation activities and entities outside regular banking system or within it but falling outside scope of regulation. The dissertation discussion would be limited to better developed institutions and investment products. It is analysed that the most risky area of shadow banking is its wealth management products originated from the financial institutions that could build up leverage in the form of off-balance sheet transaction. Secondly, systemic risk that Internet financial institution bears could be significant. Internet create is closely interconnected with the regular banking through the channel money market fund. It also would accept deposit that is not guaranteed and the fund is prone to misappropriation. 4. During periods of economic stability, the government introduced a number of regulations on shadow banking. The Document 107 released by China in late 2013 is the first regulation which sets out a framework and general principles to monitor and regulate it. It is binding on all regulators who are required to coordinate with each other. This will help build up macro prudential measures to regulate shadow banking. Secondly, the wealth management business in banks and trust companies arguably creates the most significant systemic risk due to its wealth management products being intertwined with regulated banks. A number of regulations have been released in response to industry development and changes in economy, however comprehensive legislations are still missing. The shadow banking activities in China are not entirely unregulated. Any individual undertaking fundraising from the general public without proper authorisation from the government can be prosecuted for illegal fundraising under Criminal Law. The severity of the punishment should deter the activities of underground banking and unauthorised deposit taking. 5. The Chinese government will only intervene more proactively when shadow banking poses a rising risk to the economy, as the government viewed it as a necessity. Removing the ceiling on deposit rates is arguably an effective means of curbing shadow banking. To ease the pressure of liberalising deposit rates, one way would be through Internet finance which could help develop the financial industry and bring in more competition. If the government wants to control the growth of Internet finance, they could introduce varying degrees of regulations. One way is the law prohibiting illegal fundraising. However, it is clear that the Chinese government is reluctant to regulate Internet finance and therefore it is likely to remain unregulated for the foreseeable future. 6. In addition to regulating shadow banking during periods of economic stability and when risk is building up, it is important to assess the tools the Chinese government could employ when a financial crisis is imminent. The tools should be able to address systemic risks by shadow banking to the financial system. It is concluded that ‘guaranteed payout’ would prevent a ‘run’ in financial industry. Additionally, the government’s control on banks allows early intervention which is likely to be an effective tool in counteracting the amplifying negative effect of high leverage. 7. Since China is not an open economy like developed countries, it can exercise influence on the financial industry. Therefore they can employ their regulatory tools more flexibly. In light of the above, it is submitted that China should be able to manage the risks posed by shadow banking to financial sector