A financial leasing committee under the China Banking Association (CBA) was established on Monday in Beijing, and Mr. Li Xiaopeng, chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's Financial Leasing Co. Ltd. (ICBC Leasing), was elected as director of the CBA financial leasing committee.  The CBA financial leasing committee consists of 12 financial leasing companies supervised by the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC).

Financial leasing business is a supplement to the traditional commercial banking business, and was significantly under-developed in China.  To promote the development of commercial leasing industry, China revised its regulations on financial leasing companies in March 2007 to allow financial institutions to participate in or set up financial leasing companies. By these rules, any commercial bank, whether incorporated within or outside China, profitable for two consecutive years and with sufficient capital, together with some other requirements, can apply for establishing commercial leasing business.  In the first half of this year, China approved a quota for establishing ten financial leasing companies, and more financial leasing companies will be approved in the future.

Currently, the 12 financial leasing companies with total assets of 94.8 billion yuan mainly focus on businesses leasing of machinery equipment, airplanes, power equipment and shipping.