China’s Communist Party takes aim at hedonistic bankers

Senior staff at China’s largest investment banks have been flying economy, not first class, in recent months. They are cutting back on entertaining clients and drinking less, if at all, at banquets. A banker says he has been warning junior colleagues to avoid ostentatious displays of wealth. It is, he reports, for their own good.“Common prosperity”, a campaign for a more equal China, which was launched in 2021 by Xi Jinping, is coming to investment banking. A recent commentary by the official corruption watchdog, published on February 23rd, orders financiers to smash “financial elitism, worship of wealth and reverence for the West”. Meanwhile, the disappearance of Bao Fan, a high-profile banker, reportedly to take part in an investigation, has put the industry on edge.