China’s internet censors have a dim view of Facebook, but that has not stopped it from being a model of sorts for the country’s securities regulator, IFR reported on Saturday. At a regular training seminar last week, the China Securities and Regulatory Commission (CSRC) urged IPO bankers to learn from the risk disclosures in Facebook’s listing prospectus, the report added.

The remarks underline China’s determination to transform its existing IPO system – where regulators decide if a company is fit to come to market – into a more disclosure-based model that trusts investors to judge the risks and rewards of buying into a float.

The CSRC is working hard to restore confidence in the IPO market after a string of volatile new listings led fund managers, including Societe Generale‘s Chinese joint venture, to shun new listings.

As role models go, however, Facebook cannot be a more unlikely candidate…