The announcement comes after Reuters reported that Li would be named as the head of a new financial regulator as part of a broader restructuring of its financial regulatory regime, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Li, 52, is vice governor of Sichuan province. He has worked at state-owned China Construction Bank Corp (CCB) for more than two decades and was later moved to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) as vice president in July 2016.

The NFRA is a new government body under the State Council tasked to consolidate supervision over a multi-trillion dollar financial industry. It will replace the CBIRC and absorb some supervisory functions from the central bank and the securities regulator.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Jacqueline Wong)