China's sweeping overhaul: Merging regulators, creating new ministries

China said it will merge its banking and insurance regulators and create a new agricultural and rural village ministry, a parliament document released on Tuesday showed, among a number of proposed changes in the biggest ministry shake-up in years.

China will also transfer some of the banking and insurance regulators' roles to the central bank, the document showed, in a long-awaited move to streamline and tighten oversight of the financial system in the world's second-biggest economy.

Since the beginning of last year, Beijing has cracked down on leverage and risky market practices, with China's financial regulators releasing a flurry of new rules in an attempt to rein in risks.

China is restructuring the responsibilities, roles and powers of its state institutions to make them more efficient.