BEIJING - China's top insurance regulator said Monday it will tighten regulations for the industry to avoid systemic crisis.
The industry should focus on its insurance business and regulators should strictly enforce regulations, said the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) in a statement.
The insurance sector should guard against financial risks, support supply-side structural reform and help promote the development of the real economy, said the statement.
The statement came after China's top anti-graft authority announced that Xiang Junbo, chairman of the CIRC, was being investigated for a suspected serious violation of the code of conduct of the Communist Party of China.
Xiang is also Party chief of the CIRC.
The China Insurance Regulatory Commission said the industry should guard against financial risks & support reform
According to the Supreme People's Procuratorate, between January 2014 and June 2015, Chinese prosecutors investigated 877 people in the financial sector for bribery or abuse of power.
The investigated officials included Zhang Yujun, assistant chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, who was removed from office for "severe disciplinary violations" amid wild swings in China's stock markets in 2015.
In order to deal with disorder in the financial sector, CPC officials should keep high alert on financial risks and take powerful measures to deal with corruption in the sector, advance financial regulatory reform and improve internal supervision in financial institutions.
In 2016, 415,000 officials were punished for violating the Party's code of conduct and 11,000 others in suspicion of crimes were transferred to judicial organs.
Besides the crackdown on "tigers" and "flies," the graft watchdog has been busy hunting "foxes," or corrupt officials suspected of economic crimes hiding abroad. More than 1,000 fugitives were returned from abroad in 2016.
