10. Legal Duties in Chinese Bank Governance

As the final piece of the puzzle, Chap. 10 explores legal duties of the bank in the context of corporate governance in banking organizations, which has been prioritized both by the banking industry and financial regulators across countries since and in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. Starting with discussion on legal duties in generic corporate governance, the chapter investigates specialized legal duties in the scenario of bank governance, which mainly embrace the compliance duty and fiduciary duty, with the former focusing on the duty to comply with the regulatory requirements and the latter comprising the duty of care, duty of loyalty, and duty of disclosure. On such basis, the present chapter continues to elaborate legal duties in Chinese bank governance, namely, the specific compliance duty and fiduciary duties in Chinese institutional settings. Representing, predominantly, the paradigm discourses of the diversified stakeholder theory and the legitimacy discourse of financial regulation, the compliance duty analyzes how Chinese banks comply with the laws and regulations in their business operation, anti-money laundering campaigns, and anti-corruption efforts. The fiduciary duties in Chinese banks, on the other hand, explore how the duty of care, the duty of loyalty, and the duty of disclosure are constituted by the regulatory discourses, which well resonate the paradigm discourses of the enhanced shareholder primacy.