The Financial System in China: Financial Sectors, State Influences, and Opportunities for Crime

The prevalent financial crimes in contemporary China are committed in a unique postsocialist context in which criminals exploit opportunities produced by inadequate financial reforms that have only partially improved China’s financial system since the reform policy was enacted in 1979. A major difference between the Chinese financial system and those of more developed nations is the high level of political control and state ownership. The five largest commercial banks in China are majority-owned by the central government and the government owns substantial shares in many of the other banks. By the end of 2013, China had 3,949 banks with total assets of US$26 trillion, but 43.3 percent of them were controlled by the “big five” banks: the China Construction Bank (CCB), the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the Bank of China (BOC), and the Bank of Communication (BoCom) (CBRC, 2014).