China’s Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) will send two inspection teams to Foresea Life and Evergrande Life to deal with any possible financial risks stemming from massive share purchases, YiCai reported on Tuesday evening. The move follows CIRC’s decision on Monday to suspend Foresea Life from selling new life insurance policies and proposing new products. The industry believes stricter financial regulations will come. PBOC to offer US$49.3 billion in MLF loans: The People’s Bank of China will offer new medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to 24 financial institutions, YiCai reported on Tuesday citing the PBOC’s official weibo account. A total of 339 billion yuan (US$49.3 billion) will be set aside for the new MLF loans. This move is to ensure reasonable and adequate liquidity in the banking system. 15% drop in HK property prices by 2017: Citibank: Citibank estimated a 15% drop in Hong Kong’s property price by the end of 2017, Caixin reported on Tuesday evening, quoting Lei Zhiyan, Director of Citibank’s research department in his speech, entitled the 2017 Asia Economic Outlook, that was held in Hong Kong on the same day. With a supply shortage in property and mainland capital flooding into Hong Kong, Lei said the price decline will not be a long-term trend. Officials to keep close eye on foreign investment: “Irrational foreign investment” in the recreation and real estate industries – including sports clubs, cinemas and hotels – will be closely monitored by supervision departments, said the heads of the National Development and Reform Commission, the Commence Ministry, the People’s Bank of China, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange in an interview with Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday. Foreign investment by limited-partnership companies and large-scale investment outside the main business of firms will also be monitored. Yuan may continue to stay basically stable: PBOC: The yuan currency will possibly remain basically stable at a reasonable and balanced level, the Securities Daily said, cited a commentary on the People’s Bank of China website on Tuesday night. The commentary said the yuan rose modestly in November when viewed against a basket of currencies, showing the yuan’s strength in the global system. Preferential policies to ease firms’ tax burden: Companies planning to restructure such as through mergers and acquisitions will benefit from eight new preferential taxation policies including deferred payment,a Securities Daily report said on Wednesday, citing the Finance Ministry and National Taxation Bureau. Companies will also be allowed to pay income tax on its earnings on investment via instalments over five years. Approval given for five private banks to set up: The first private banks in Fujian and Anhui province – named Huatong and Xinan respectively – were among five private institutions given approval to open, Sina Finance reported on Wednesday. The China Banking Regulatory Commission approved the applications in November. For the first 11 months this year, 158 private banks had applied to register, the report added. 21 institutions allowed to manage China’s National Pension Funds: China’s National Council for Social Security Fund has appointed 21 institutions to manage its National Pension Funds, National Business Daily reported on Wednesday morning. Some of the institutions also manage China’s National Social Security Fund. Yang Delong, analyst of Qian Haikai Yuan Fund Management, therefore expected similar management styles between the two.