Chinese banking regulator has imposed a total fine of CNY366m ($56.8m) on five banks for breaching multiple rules and regulations.
The move was reported by the South China Morning Post citing a China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) statement.
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The five penalised banks are Huaxia Bank, China Bohai Bank, Bank of China, China Merchants Bank and The Bank of East Asia’s unit.
Huaxia Bank was fined CNY98.3m for failing to inform clients about potential risks in investment products as well as lapses in wealth management.
CBIRC imposed a penalty of CNY97.2m on China Bohai Bank for bank acceptance bill management failures and wealth management wrongdoings.
In September last year, CBIRC penalised five financial institutions CNY320m for market irregularities.
The latest step comes as China ramped up efforts to mitigate financial market risks to stabilise the economy.
The publication quoted the regulator as saying: “The CBIRC will maintain high pressure on violation of laws and regulations.”
The local authorities are also empowered to reduce bad loan ratio of smaller banks and lower financial risks.
Last month, it was reported that the central bank of the country decided to stress test all 4,024 banks.
The annual stress test programme simulates scenarios to assess the resiliency of the lenders.
Recently, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He also asked the smaller and local lenders to ramp up risk management.
