China starts registration-based IPOs reform process

PHOTO CHINA DAILY BEIJING -- The China Securities Regulatory Commission CSRC started soliciting public feedback on the main rules of the initial public offerings IPOs on Wednesday, officially kicking off the across-the- board reform.

The institutional arrangement will cover all national securities exchanges, as well as all types of public offerings of stocks, as well as preferred stock, convertible corporate bonds and depositary receipts, according to the CSRC.

The CSRC stated that the reform will optimize registration procedures, unify registration systems nationwide and fine-tune the supervision mechanism.

The CSRC said that the review process is transparent and that social supervision is accepted, and that the essence of the registration-based reform is to leave the choice to the market.

China first piloted the registration-based IPO system on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in 2019 and expanded it to the ChiNext board in 2020 and to shares on the Beijing Stock Exchange in 2021.