China’s big four financial regulators have released the full bill of penalties applied for misconduct in the banking, securities and insurance sectors in 2017.
2017 was a record-breaking year for the China Securities Regulatory Commission in terms of both the number and value of the administrative penalties it dispensed to malfeasants.
CSRC issued 224 administrative penalties worth a total of 7.479 billion yuan, for a year-on-year value increase of 74.74%.
44 people were barred from the market, marking a year-on-year rise of 18.91%.
Figures released by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission on 22 January indicate that it dispensed penalties to 720 institutions and 1046 individuals in 2017. The total penalty amount for 2017 was 150 billion yuan, for a year-on-year surge of 56.1%.
In 2017 the China Banking Regulatory Commission issued 2,725 penalties, for a total penalisation sum of 2.753 billion, while also confiscating 859 million yuan in illegal income.
Data from the Chinese central bank indicates that it issued 903 administrative penalties in 2017, with financial institutions penalised 79.8 million yuan in total for infractions in relation to payment settlement, money-laundering, consumer protection and commercial notes.
The central bank hit third party payment organisations with 95 administrative penalties in 2017, worth a total of 23.6414 million yuan.
Observers expect China’s financial regulators to continue to apply heavy pressure to the sector in 2018.
During the first two weeks of 2018 alone the insurance regulator issued fines worth a total of 20.41 million yuan to 44 insurance agencies, while the Chongqing branch of the Chinese central bank just recently dispensed 9 fines worth a total of 620,000 yuan to lenders in breach of anti-money laundering requirements.
The Central Economic Work Conference convened in December made reference to the need to “effectively prosecute the war for the prevention and diffusion of key risks, with a focus on the prevention of financial risk and expediting the formation of positive cycles between finance and the real economy, finance and real estate, and within the financial sector itself.”
