China to boost supervision of IPOs, listed firms, brokers, public offering funds

BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) — China’s securities watchdog will issue three guidelines to boost supervision of initial public offerings (IPOs), listed companies, brokers and public offering funds.

It will also release a guideline to improve its own capacities, said Li Chao, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on Friday.

The regulator will intensify its crackdown on financial fraud, particularly targeting five types of illegal practices, said Guo Ruiming, head of the CSRC Department of Listed Company Supervision.

They are long-term systemic fraud and third-party cooperation in fraudulent activities, fraudulent issuance of stocks and bonds, abuse of accounting policies to manipulate profits, falsification through activities like financing trade, and fraudulent actions that harm the interests of listed companies, according to Guo.

The regulator noted that it will enhance random sampling and on-site probes of companies slated for listing.

Yan Bojin, head of the CSRC Department of Public Offering Supervision, said that the CSRC will conduct thorough investigations into companies that withdraw their listing applications when they are subject to on-site probes, which implies that even if they withdraw their applications, they will still be investigated.