From this year all commercial banks in China will have to make their annual reports available to the public, to enable people to assess their reliability and competence, eastday.com reported today.
The People's Bank of China issued the policy to commercial banks yesterday. The move aims to make commercial banks more accountable and transparent to protect the legal rights of depositors and promote a safe, stable and efficient management of the banks, said the spokesman with the central bank.
Except for listed banks, the wholly state-owned banks and bank holdings conducted were not very forthcoming with information.
According to the new policy, the information released by the commercial banks should include financial reports, all risk-administration situations, management information, such as its board of directors and the general meetings of shareholders and the main affairs of the banks.
The policy applies to all commercial banks in China, including domestic commercial banks, foreign commercial banks, Sino-foreign joint venture banks and the domestic branches of foreign banks.
The information should be real, accurate, complete and comparable, according to the policy, with yearly financing reports being audited by qualified accountants.
The board of directors and governors of the banks should be assured of the reliability, accuracy and completeness of the information, according to the policy. The annual reports should be put in the main business areas of the banks, which they are accessible to the public.
(eastday.com May 24, 2002)
