Chapter 21 On the safety and soundness of Chinese banks in the post-WTO era

PurposeWealth Management Products (WMPs) are the largest and most crucial component of China's Shadow banking, which are off the balance sheet and considered as a substitute for deposits. Commercial banks in China are involved in the issuance of WMPs mainly to; evade the regulatory restrictions, move non-performing loans away from the balance sheet, chase the profits and take advantage of yield spread (the difference between WMPs yield and deposit rate).Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the authors investigate what bank related characteristics and needs; influenced and prompted the issuance of WMPs. By using a quarterly panel data from 2010 to 2019, this study performed the fixed effects approach favored by the Hausman specification test, and a feasible generalized least square (FGLS) estimation method is employed to deal with any issues of heteroscedasticity and auto-correlation.FindingsThis study found that there is a positive and significant association between the non-performing loan ratio and the issuance of WMPs. Moreover, profitability and spread were found to play an essential role in the issuance of WMPs. The findings of this study suggest that WMPs are issued for multi-purpose, and off the balance sheet status of these products makes them very lucrative for regulated Chinese commercial banks.Research limitations/implicationsNon-guaranteed WMPs are considered as an item of shadow banking in China, as banks do not consolidate this type of WMPs into their balance sheet; due to that reason, there is no individual bank data available for the amount of WMPs. The authors use the number of WMPs issued by banks as a proxy for the bank's exposure to the WMPs business.Practical implicationsFrom a regulatory perspective, this study helps regulators to understand the risk associated with the issuance of WMPs; by providing empirical evidence that Chinese banks issue WMPs to hide the actual risk of non-performing loans, and this practice could mislead the regulators to evaluate the bank credit risk and loan quality. This study also identifies that Chinese banks issue WMPs for multi-purpose; this can help potential investors to understand the dynamics of WMPs issuance.Originality/valueThis research is innovative in its orientation because it is designed to investigate the less explored wealth management products (WMPs) issued by Chinese banks. This study's content includes not only innovation but also contributes to the existing literature on the shadow banking sector in terms of regulatory arbitrage. Moreover, the inclusion of FGLS estimation models, ten years of quarterly data, and the top 30 Chinese banks (covers 70% of the total Chinese commercial banking system's assets) make this research more comprehensive and significant.

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Learning Internal Controls from a Fraud Case at Bank of China

Issues in Accounting Education ◽

10.2308/iace-50177 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 27 (4) ◽

pp. 1171-1192 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Huong Ngo Higgins

Keyword(s):

Internal Control ◽

Banking Sector ◽

Business Students ◽

Internal Controls ◽

Fraud Triangle ◽

Bank Of China ◽

Recent Reform ◽

Chinese Banks ◽

Growing Economy ◽

Triangle Theory

ABSTRACT This case provides an opportunity to discuss principles of internal control, the process by which an entity's board of directors, management, and other personnel provide reasonable assurance that fraud and theft are prevented and detected. The case also facilitates discussion of the unique corporate governance and internal control environments in China, a fast-growing economy. Readers will be asked to apply the fraud triangle theory to identify internal control weaknesses and to design control activities for preventing fraud. The case is intended for beginning auditing students, but is also suitable for a more general audience such as accounting, management, and business students at the M.B.A. or undergraduate level. The case introduces Bank of China (BOC) against the backdrop of China's banking sector. It describes the proliferation of non-performing loans in Chinese banks, the failure to report these loans correctly, and the way in which these conditions create a climate where fraud and theft might be easily hidden. These problems and the need for internal controls become evident in the description of a major fraud scheme at BOC. After relating this scheme, the case concludes by reviewing recent reform initiatives to modernize internal controls in Chinese banks.

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