Citic's downfall amid market meltdown leads to unease

Hong Kong

THE FALL from grace for China's biggest brokerage and investment bank, Citic Securities Co, has been fast and steep. The firm - sometimes referred to as the Goldman Sachs of China - began the year on its way to eclipsing UBS Group AG in the ranks of the top four securities firms in the world. Now it's embroiled in a police investigation and a probe by the stock-market regulator. Its chairman is being replaced and its top leadership reorganised. At least nine Citic executives have been investigated for alleged insider trading or haven't shown up to work and can't be reached.

The origins of its turmoil lie in its role as the highest flier in China's developing finance field, caught up in the fallout from a stock market crash starting in June that erased US$5 trillion in value. Encouraged by multiple pronouncements from policy makers that they wanted Chinese firms to develop the finance tools used in the rest of the world, Citic became a leader. Short selling, stock-index futures, cross-border return swaps - all were on the table, all permitted with qualified nods by China's regulators, until the rules changed and suddenly they weren't.