China is investigating Yi Huiman, its former top securities regulator, more than a year after his surprise removal from the post.
Yi, 60, is being probed for suspected serious violation of discipline and law, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a statement Saturday. Reuters reported the investigation on Friday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
Yi was let go from his post as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission in February last year and replaced by a former close colleague of Premier Li Qiang. His dismissal came as authorities were battling to stem a stock selloff that erased about US$5 trillion from Chinese markets from their 2021 peak. Markets have staged a recovery this year.
The former banker, who had steered the top regulator since January 2019 until his removal, joins a long list of financial officials and executives caught in President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption. Xi has vowed to deepen the efforts in sectors from finance to energy and show “no mercy” in the fight, even after having claimed initial victory in mid-2022.
The CSRC said it firmly supports the Communist Party’s decision to investigate Yi, pledged to learn from the case and deepen efforts to eradicate conditions that breed corruption, according to a statement late Saturday.
Before becoming a regulator, Yi spent most of his career at the nation’s largest lender, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, including serving as its chairman from 2016 to 2019.
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ICBC has become a focal point of the crackdown. In February, China handed a death sentence with reprieve to the lender’s ex-vice president, Zhang Hongli, over bribery. Zhang’s time at ICBC, during 2010 to 2018, overlapped in part with Li Xiaopeng, former chairman and party secretary of China Everbright Group, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in March, and Cong Lin, a former executive at China Renaissance Holdings, who had also been detained.
Overseeing the securities regulator has never been an easy job, especially when it comes with a task of stabilizing stock markets. Yi took over the reign as CSRC chief after the nation’s stocks collapsed into a bear market. The market then rallied more than 80% over the following two years, before giving back most gains while he remained on the post.
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Stocks Under Yi's Rein | China stocks rallied over 80% before erasing most gains during Yi's tenure
Yi’s predecessor Liu Shiyu, who headed the CSRC from early 2016, was demoted and punished for violations just months after leaving the job.
