China has appointed a new Party chief of the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), filling the vacancy left by Li Yunze whose profile was abruptly scrubbed from the regulator’s website last month.

Ding Xiangqun will take the key financial regulatory position to oversee banks and insurers with combined assets of over 500 trillion yuan (US$73.89 trillion), according to a statement posted on the NFRA website yesterday.

Ding has been appointed Party secretary of the regulator, while the position of administrator remains vacant pending a formal appointment by the State Council.

The 61-year-old is the only minister-level female taking charge of a key financial regulatory department.

The NFRA is one of China’s key financial regulatory agencies – others include the central bank and securities regulator. It faces key tasks of resolving the risk of small and rural banks, managing commercial banks’ risk exposure to the property downturn and also enhancing the financing support for tech innovation.

Ding is expected to bring a high-calibre technical background to the role, with her three decades of experience in a variety of key state-owned financial institutions. She spent about 20 years at the Bank of China, subsequently serving as deputy president of China Development Bank and chairwoman of the People’s Insurance Company (Group) of China.

She was deputy head of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, which is China’s gateway to Southeast Asia, from 2017 to 2018.