The PBOC Strikes Back

The PBOC was sidelined in 2005 when the reform camp was pushed aside by party insiders. With the reform camp ascendant once more, the PBOC is grabbing territory.

Central bank eyes new agency for forex investment

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) is working on a plan to establish a new government agency to invest its US$3.5 trillion of foreign exchange reserves abroad more efficiently.

Emphasis mine. That's a dig at SAFE, which is supposed to be under PBOC control, but has been trying to gain power for itself.

Zhou is in favour of the idea of a parallel platform, but some senior SAFE officials fear it would gnaw away at the powers of the foreign exchange regulator.

Senior officials and scholars, unhappy with CIC's poor returns, have been pressing for platforms other than the CIC and SAFE to invest China's reserves abroad.

The sources said the PBOC is considering creating the unit within its own organisational structure, or as a separate, independently run agency directly under the central bank.