EMAIL
PRINTMinistry of Finance officials recently called executives at ICBC and ABC to tell them to consider domestic companies.
(Beijing) – Beijing is considering tougher measures to compel state-owned banks to hire local auditors, part of its long-term push to strengthen domestic auditing services.
Officials from the Ministry of Finance called executives at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Agricultural Bank of China to ask them to include domestic firms as candidates for their next auditor, several sources with knowledge of the matter said.
The banks had to postpone their bidding to follow the instruction, one of the sources said. A primary change they would have to make concerns a common bidder qualification, which states that a desirable candidate must have deep auditing experience with a bank.
This requirement practically shuts the door to all domestic firms, an official at a large bank said, because almost all listed Chinese financial institutions have been using global audit firms, especially the Big Four. These companies have paired up with the four largest state-controlled banks during their share ownership reforms in the last decade.
Read Full Article HERE
