BEIJING, Dec 23: China's top banking regulator has warned against allowing the country's commercial banks to set up insurance companies, saying successful combinations of the two businesses are rare, a Chinese paper reported on Saturday.

The state-controlled China Construction Bank and Bank of Communications have both applied to the China Banking Regulatory Commission to set up insurance firms.

But commission chairman Liu Mingkang has repeatedly expressed wariness about letting banks take on the role of insurers, the Economic Observer reported, citing unnamed sources.

Liu has said more than once that the business models of lenders and insurers are so different that there are few examples of successful hybrids, the paper said.—Reuters