With a new generation of leaders set to take control of the country in 2012, the Communist Party was widely expected to replace its top banking and financial regulators as several of them neared retirement age.

Several of those changes, which were announced Saturday, come at a time of strong economic growth in China but continuing worries about soaring inflation, a depressed stock market and concerns that heavy lending by China’s biggest banks following the 2008 financial crisis is likely to lead to a huge number of nonperforming loans over the next three to five years.

To strengthen its controls, the Communist Party on Saturday appointed Shang Fulin, 60, as the new chairman of the powerful China Banking Regulatory Commission, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Mr. Shang had been the head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

He replaced Liu Mingkang, 65, who had served as the nation’s top banking regulator since March 2003. He had reached retirement age.

Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Construction Bank — one of China’s four big state-owned banks — was named to replace Mr. Shang as the nation’s top securities regulator.

Mr. Guo, 55, has led China Construction Bank since 2005, when the bank was listed in Hong Kong in one of the biggest initial public offerings in history.

Xiang Junbo, 54, resigned on Saturday as head of one of China’s other big state-owned banks, the Agricultural Bank of China. He was named Saturday as the chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, replacing Wu Dingfu.

The three men named Saturday are longtime government bureaucrats. They were appointed by the Communist Party Central Committee’s Organization Department.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/business/global/china-reshuffles-leadership-at-financial-regulators.html?partner=rss&emc=rss