An Assesment of the Chinese Banking System Reform

It is hardly surprising that one of the biggest and more dynamic economies of the world has a financial system with the same characteristics. The authors review its evolution focusing on its qualitative aspect and, specifically, in the reforms carried out to modernize the system. Recent reforms may be grouped in three main pillars: banks restructuring, financial liberalization and improvement of the banking regulation and surveillance. Despite some improvement can be noted when it comes to the quality of the assets and to supervision, the article concludes that there is still a long way to go as there is still an excessive government intervention and weak corporate governance. Moreover, the global financial crisis, which is not necessarily a Chinese one, has apparently left the reform process in stand-by