China's railway regulator has collected tens of billions of yuan in insurance premiums while insurance compensation has remained unchanged for decades, Chinese media reported on Thursday after a fatal high-speed train collision raised public concern over compensation.
Stocks on the Chinese mainland fell for the first time in three days as a drop in US durable-goods orders and a stalemate over the US debt limit boosted concerns global economic growth will falter.
Private lenders are charging up to 18 times the benchmark loan rate in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) finding it increasingly hard to get bank credit as a result of government tightening policies.
A top Chinese credit ratings agency has put two local government financing vehicles in the southwestern province of Yunnan on credit watch, the first such move since concerns mounted over potential defaults on local government debt.
Chinese thermal power company Shanghai Electric Power plans to raise 9.5 billion yuan ($1,47 billion) via a private share placement, in a move to diversify its power business, the company said on Thursday.
Swiss bank UBS said on Thursday it has set up an asset management unit in Beijing to tap China's rapidly-growing $650 billion private equity market.
Chinese insurers will need more than 110 billion yuan ($17 billion) of external funding to fuel their rapid development in the next three years, insurance analysts from Standard & Poor's said on Wednesday.
Stocks on the Chinese mainland rose, sending the benchmark to its biggest gain in two weeks, after data showing industrial companies' first-half profits advanced eased concerns that government measures to curb inflation will hurt earnings growth.
China's banking regulator said it will step up monitoring of loans to local government financing platforms and the property market in the second half of the year.
China's stocks advanced Wednesday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.76 percent to close at 2,723.49.
Hong Kong stocks closed down 30. 39 points, or 0.13 percent, at 22,541.69 on Wednesday.
The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, gained 23.01 points, or 2.58 percent, to 915.55 on Wednesday.