The China Securities Regulatory Commission revealed publicly for the first time the identities of the 25 members serving on the issue review committee yesterday in a bid to prevent unqualified companies from listing.

Twelve of the 25 members will be part timers and the remaining members will serve as full timers on the committee, which authorizes the listing of new firms.

The 25 members come from the securities regulator, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, fund management firms and intermediary organizations, such as law and accounting firms and investment banks.

Among them is Nicole Yuen, head of China Equities of UBS of Switzerland. UBS is one of the foreign banks approved by the securities regulator to invest in the A-share markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen under the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor program.

"Most of the members have been chosen to sit on the committee for the first time. I think that the move to disclose our names publicly will help to improve transparency," said a fund manager, who will serve on the committee. He spoke on condition of anonymity. "As everything is now exposed to the public, how could you do something wrong?"

The move is part of the securities regulator's plan to reform the all-powerful committee, whose numbers have been cut to 25 members from 80 previously under a new rule that took effect on December 11.

The new rule also stipulates that firms seeking to list shares need to get at least five 'yes' votes from seven members, who are selected from the 25-member committee, for each review.

The committee, which was formed by the securities regulator four years ago, has been criticized by both the public and the media in recent years. As the majority of the members of the committee came from outside the securities industry, they had little time to be concentrate on the job.

One criticism is that some committee members read the application materials provided by the firms seeking to list shares in the morning and then voted on the companies' application in the afternoon, said investment bankers.

What caused even more controversy is that company officials often tried to illegally contact the committee members, who were unknown to the public, allowing financially unstable firms to list on the stock market.

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