Asia’s growing band of big, local investment banks won’t let short-term market fluctuations affect their planned transitions from national to regional leadership

Look beyond the gyrations of its stock markets, and you can see one thing clearly in China: equivocation. The regime of Xi Jinping is fundamentally flawed because of its public espousal of the markets, but private refusal to cede any real control. Optimists hope the latest crisis could be the impetus for real reform. Most experts warn investors hoping for a recovery in their stock purchases not to hold their breath

China’s struggle to communicate effectively with markets was demonstrated by its scapegoating of journalists for supposedly worsening the crash in local stock prices.

Market propped up by $200 billion in July and August; brokerage probes undermine drive to reform.

Lenders were offered a valuable real-life stress test in late August, when investor concerns about the Chinese authorities’ bungled response to slowing growth in China following the devaluation of the yuan led to plunging Chinese and world equity prices, slumping commodity valuations and spikes in volatility across currency and securities markets.

Everyone knew a revaluation of renminbi was coming sooner or later, yet China's announcement, including reform of the dollar fixing mechanism, caught many off guard. The move left observers debating whether it was stimulating its economy or acquiescing to calls for exchange-rate liberalization.

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The 2015 Euromoney China gold investors survey was open from 1st June to the 26th June. All responses were collected online from investors in gold and gold‐backed products from the People’s Republic of China. Euromoney received 628 responses:

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Subscribers have full access to the results.

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With unprecedented turbulence in the stock market shaking investor confidence, gold remains a strong focus in China. Confidence in the retail market is stubbornly high as talk of a yuan-denominated fix swells

Over one quarter of fund invested in China; concern over volatility exposure.

Foreign investors pull Rmb40.5 billion in two weeks; average P/E ratio still 66 times.

The government has allowed what should have been a simple market correction to get the better of it.

In 15 years, Jiang Jianqing has taken ICBC from technical bankruptcy to the world’s most profitable bank.

It may be a battered economy on the edge of Europe, but Portugal is rapidly becoming the hotspot for Chinese corporate ownership in Europe, particularly in the financial sector. Whether they like it or not, governments and regulators in Lisbon, Brussels and elsewhere will welcome them with open arms.

The culture among Chinese companies of preparing and executing their own acquisitions isn’t good news for investment banks keen to charge for services. Will it ever change?

Stark contrast with reaction to Sino-Forest default in 2011; case highlights key man and regulatory risks in China.

The slowdown of the Chinese real-estate market is an increasing risk for the country’s banks, but government intervention might dampen the threat.

Recent data suggest that the momentum of the renminbi is slowing, particularly outside Asia.

Beijing has ambitious plans for market; international funds will find it ‘hard to ignore’.

Emerging markets (EMs) with fiscal and external imbalances, vulnerable to capital outflows – including oil and other commodity producers struggling to balance their budgets – are among the 72 sovereigns downgraded since the end of 2014 by more than 440 economists and other country-risk experts.

The pool of approved stock lenders for the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect short selling scheme must be widened for the initiative to succeed, according to market experts.

Tencent and Alibaba are at the vanguard of setting up new online banks. It's a great way to shake up the old state players and, by mining their data, get credit ratings for China's underserved population. But do upstart tech companies really have the political and business resources to challenge the incumbents?

Critics may cry foul at the moral hazard but Beijing has bought itself time with its debt swap for local governments.

Few thought that the marriage of a Chinese securities firm with an Asian brokerage which had a unique, and at times disruptive, culture could work. But two years on, Citic and CLSA have proved they can be at least the sum of their parts. Can the combination now become a true regional powerhouse as its leaders hope?

Pioneering WeBank launches; China set to lead industry.