(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-09-04 14:19

China's first national society for interbank market dealers was launched on Monday amid government efforts to expand the role of market forces in currencies trading.

Zhou Xiaochuan, president of the People's Bank of China, called it "a milestone event" in the development of China's financial market at the opening ceremony and linked it to the famous Buttonwood Agreement signed between 24 of the most prominent brokers in the United States in 1792 to mark the beginning of the investment community of Wall Street.

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C hina's interbank market has expanded rapidly over the past decade and covered a diversity of products including bonds, lending, bills, gold and forex, but the absence of a self-disciplinary non-governmental organization has increased the workload of the central bank and restrained the financial innovation and enthusiasm of market players, Zhou said.

By the end of August, the number of participants in the interbank bond market alone had surged from 16 in 1997 to 7,137. The troop of dealers also diversified from mere commercial banks to all kinds of institutional investors such as insurers, securities companies and enterprises.

According to Zhou, the association will have the right to launch new financial products tapped by its members so long as the products are registered with the market regulators. In the past, the central bank had to spend hours approving each new product tapped by the dealers.

Zhou also lauded the contributions of the National Association of Securities Dealers to the American financial market. The leading private-sector provider of financial regulatory services established in 1939 not only fostered and enforced market integrity and investor confidence but also instituted a technological breakthrough in stock trading in the 1970s with the introduction of NASDAQ, the world's first automated stock exchange.

Tan Yaling, an expert with Bank of China (BOC), said Zhou's remarks indicated the banking authorities hoped to borrow from western experiences and were aiming high.

"An independent association will grant market dealers much more leeway in the development of financial derivatives and allow market forces to have more say in pricing. It's a right step in the right direction," Tan said.

However, given most of China's banks, the lion's share of market dealers, remain state-owned, Tan said there was still a long way to go for the association to have a maximum impact.

"I am personally interested in what specific regulations and rules the association is going to constitute and how they will punish dealers who break the rules," she said.

President Li Lihui of BOC has been selected as the chief of the association whose current membership comprises more than 90 dealers, intermediaries and experts.

The association was initiated by BOC, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Foreign Exchange Trade Center and CITIC Securities.