China's brokerages turn shadow banks

China’s brokerages turn shadow banks

Chinese securities brokerages have emerged as a crucial new link in the country’s shadow banking industry, a development that underscores how financial risks are spreading more widely in China. People familiar with brokerages say they got started in shadow financing around the middle of last year, taking control of funds that banks wanted to remove from their balance sheets. New industry data confirm this development and reveal a dramatic increase in such activity in the fourth quarter. For 2012 as a whole, shadow financing via brokerages appears to have increased almost 600 per cent. http://link.ft.com/r/M2ZOXX/YG0FNL/72VMH3/62TX02/GYPNAJ/KI/h?a1=2013&a2=1&a3=27