The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) officially established the Investor Protection Bureau.

　　First Financial Daily reporters learned yesterday that the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) officially established the Investor Protection Bureau (hereinafter referred to as the "IPB") at the end of November 2011. As an internal department of the CSRC, the IPB will coordinate the investor protection work previously scattered across various functional departments. The agency has begun operations, with Xiong Wei, former commissioner of the CSRC Shanghai Office, serving as the head of this newly established institution.
　　According to reports, the IPB is responsible for the overall planning, organizational guidance, supervision, inspection, and assessment of investor protection work in the securities and futures market. Its specific responsibilities include eight aspects:
　　Drafting policies and regulations for investor protection in securities and futures; assessing the sufficiency and effectiveness of investor protection in the formulation and implementation of securities and futures regulatory policies; conducting overall planning, coordination, and evaluation of investor education and services in the securities and futures market; coordinating and promoting the establishment of a sound investor service, education, and protection mechanism; researching investor complaint handling systems, promoting the improvement of processing procedures and operating mechanisms, and organizing relevant departments to handle investor consultation services; promoting the establishment of a sound system for the legal redress of investor rights and interests; supervising the management and use of investor protection funds in accordance with regulations; organizing and participating in domestic and international exchanges and cooperation on investor protection among regulatory agencies.
　　In its initial stages, the IPB needs to systematically sort out its institutional and operational systems. Through strengthening the top-level design of investor protection, it will coordinate resources inside and outside the securities and futures system to ensure the orderly progress of investor protection work.
　　Sources close to the regulatory authorities said that in the short term, the IPB will not replace the investor protection functions of other functional departments of the CSRC, such as the Fund Department, the Institutional Department, and the Futures Department. Taking the Fund Department as an example, its supervision of fund sales, fair trading, and information disclosure all involve investor protection. The Institutional Department oversees securities firms. In the past, client margin of securities companies was often misappropriated. The Institutional Department conducted comprehensive governance of securities companies in the years after 2004, disposing of risky securities companies, and greatly recouping potential losses for investors. Therefore, the IPB will mainly coordinate the investor protection work of these departments and gradually explore and establish a systematic investor protection mechanism.
　　In addition to the CSRC's IPB, the CIRC's Insurance Consumer Rights Protection Bureau was established at the end of October last year. In addition, the banking regulatory system will also establish its own financial consumer protection agency. A coordination mechanism will be established among these three institutions.
　　Compared with the CIRC, the CSRC's investor protection work is more complex. The former focuses on insurance policies, but the investor protection work in the securities and futures market is extremely complex. In addition to financial products similar to those in the insurance and banking industries, it also involves civil lawsuits arising from false information disclosure by listed companies, and the current judicial relief system for the latter is very imperfect.
　　“Establishing and improving the investor protection mechanism in the securities market will be a long-term task,” said the aforementioned source close to the regulatory authorities.