Twin-Peak Financial Regulatory Regime in China : A Desirability Analysis

In the past two decades, the Chinese financial markets have witnessed an unprecedented development and expansion, changing the landscape of the whole financial markets. But it has also drawn controversy with many scholars warning the negative consequences of the behemoth size and the increasing speed of the expansion of shadow banking activities. The banking activity expansion and the emergence of financial conglomerates have been challenging the effectiveness of the current institutional regulatory structure: the fragmented "One Bank and Three Commissions" system and the "Joint Meeting" coordination mechanism. The article first examines and analyzes the regulatory options through a theoretical exploration of the institutional regulation structure and integrated regulation structure as a "wild context". It then turns to an analysis of the objective-oriented twin-peak regulation model as a "deep context". By drawing on the Australia experience of the twin-peak reform and discussing the new ecology of the Chinese financial markets, the article attempts to answer the question of the desirability of a twin-peak regulatory regime in China