China warns foreign banks against excessive pay

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has warned global major investment banks not to reward their top bankers excessively. The Chinese regulator has summoned executives to discuss bankers' pay. Executives in attendance, which included Credit Suisse's local Chairman Janice Hu and Goldman's China co-head Sean Fan, were told by top regulators to keep compensation, especially for senior managers, in line with the country’s “common prosperity” agenda. The meeting was characterised as a highly unusual, if not unprecedented, regulatory intrusion into foreign banks' personnel decisions. The regulator’s action is said to be the country's latest effort to rein in risks and to put foreign banks on the same footing as local brokers, who have been told in the past two years to cut pay and expenses.