The National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors ("NAFMII") has recently issued the Announcement on the Market Assessment of Class A Leading Underwriting Business of Foreign-invested Bank Members for Debt Financing Instruments Offered by Non-financial Enterprises (the "Announcement").
The Announcement states that the assessment targets any foreign-invested bank member that has obtained the qualification for underwriting the debt financing instruments offered by non-financial enterprises for over one year and also fulfills three requirements, including a requirement that "its parent bank is on the latest year's list of global systemically important banks". Also, the Announcement expressly states that a target will be excluded from the market assessment if it falls under any of three circumstances in the past three years, including "where it has received a criminal penalty or a major administrative penalty for its acts in breach of laws or regulations", "where it is now under investigation on suspicion of irregularities by the relevant competent authority or is taking corrective actions" and "where its irregularities result in serious consequences to the market". Moreover, the Announcement states that the market assessment will be conducted under the Market Assessment Criteria for Class A Lead Underwriting Business of Foreign-invested Bank Members of the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors, and members covered by the market assessment are required to submit the inventory of materials and the specific materials by 17:00 on August 28, 2019.