Leverage: Efforts on to clean up WMPs

lative WMPs. The outstanding balance of WMPs reached 29.05 trillion yuan, or 25 percent of the entire asset management business nationwide, at the end of 2016.

Since last year, the country’s top banking regulator has been issuing a number of directives to reduce financial leverage, address noncompliant practices and improve risk management.

As at the end of January, the balance of interbank WMPs dropped by 3.6 trillion yuan year-on-year. The growth of the wealth management business fell to 1 percent, down by 26.6 percentage points from the previous year.

The war on financial risks will continue this year, with renewed efforts to crack down on shadow banking activities and further rectification of financial irregularities, said Guo Shuqing, head of the regulator for the banking and insurance industries.