China Is Said to Appoint Guo as Top Bank, Insurance Regulator

China appointed Guo Shuqing as the nation’s top regulator overseeing its $43 trillion banking and insurance industries, said a person familiar with the matter, filling a key role in President Xi Jinping’s campaign to curb risks in the financial sector.

Guo, who has helmed the China Banking Regulatory Commission for about a year, becomes chairman of the new China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the decision isn’t yet public. The Economic Observer reported the nomination earlier.

(Related: China’s Insurance Regulator May Get a Hostile Takeover)

China last week announced the merger of its banking and insurance watchdogs in the biggest industry overhaul since 2003. The change also consolidated the power of the Communist Party and will probably extend Xi’s policy of reducing debt, which stands at about 266% of output.

Global hedge fund managers such as Kyle Bass have been scathing in their assessment of financial danger in the world’s second-largest economy, pointing to an ever-growing pile of debt and ballooning assets in recent years in the shadow-banking industry. China is among economies most at risk of a banking crisis, the Bank for International Settlements said in a study published this month, citing early-warning indicators including household borrowing.