China Said to Summon Banks to Stress Safe Technology Push
Chinese regulators summoned bank officials for a meeting this month to stress the need to carry out a nationwide directive to cut China’s reliance on foreign technology, said people familiar with the matter.
In the Jan. 15 meeting, the China Banking Regulatory Commission suggested lenders not buy new mainframe computers in 2015 and draft plans to replace the ones they now have, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the meeting was private. A senior CBRC official said in November banks rely on foreign brands for 80 percent of their core servers and systems.
The directive is a follow-up on a broad national strategy, reported by Bloomberg News in December, to purge most foreign technology for banks, state-owned enterprises and the military by 2020. The move, which would grant reprieve to foreign companies that turn over their core technology, threatens sales for vendors including Microsoft Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc.
