BEIJING, Jan 29 Reuters China plans to merge three of the nation39;s biggest bad debt managers into sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp CIC CIC.UL, staterun Xinhua Finance News reported, as part of a plan to reform financial institutions.

Three asset management companies AMCs China Cinda Asset Management, China Orient Asset Management and China Great Wall Asset Management will be incorporated into CIC, Xinhua Finance News reported on its website on Sunday, citing unidentified industry insiders. As of Monday afternoon, the report was no longer accessible on its website.

The Ministry of Finance is the largest shareholder of the three AMCs.

The finance ministry, CIC and China Cinda did not immediately reply to Reuters39; request for comment. Calls to Orient Asset Management and Great Wall went unanswered.

The move is in line with a government commitment to separating its roles as regulator and shareholder of stateowned financial institutions.

With lacklustre economic growth, regulators are curbing risk in the nation39;s 63 trillion financial industry amid mounting local government debt and crisis in the real estate sector.

China established four asset management companies AMCs in 1999 to help handle bad loans from its four largest state banks, which were facing the prospect of insolvency.

But the distressed asset managers expanded beyond their initial remit, and themselves began to pose a risk to the financial system.

The government established CIC in 2007…