China acts tough on banking industry violations

BEIJING - China's banking and insurance regulators handed out nearly 658 million yuan ($94 million) in fines in the first three quarters of this year, the Economic Information Daily reported Friday.

China's banking and insurance regulatory bodies at various levels gave 1,219 tickets to banking institutions in China, a nearly 40-percent decrease in fines from last year with the number of tickets basically unchanged.

The biggest share of the tickets went to credit and loan breaches, especially real estate loans, which incurred more tickets and larger fines than last year.

Real estate loan-related fines were estimated at around 100 million yuan, according to the report.

This year's heavy penalties showed that the government is clamping down on real estate credit breaches, said Yan Yuejin, an analyst at the Shanghai-based think tank E-house China R&D Institute.

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission has announced a slew of measures since August to prevent illegal financing to the real estate sector, including a targeted inspection on banks' property-related businesses in 32 cities and a reminder against local small-to-medium banks regarding ineligible property loan applicants.

Agricultural Bank of China, Pingan Bank and Industrial Bank Co Ltd recently said they have restricted credit card usage in real estate transactions.