Corruption found across China’s financial industry
Wasteful spending, bribe taking and pocketing off-book gains are flagged up by investigators following two-month review
Wasting public money on extravagant meals and overseas travels, taking bribes for handing out loans, and illegally pocketing off-the-book gains were some of the ways corruption had spread in the financial industry, China’s top anti-graft agency said on Thursday following a two-month review of the sector.
Some senior financial regulators and state bankers could face investigation, it added.
The reports by the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, covering 21 regulators and institutions, came after a stock market rout this summer and ensuing investigations into several senior regulatory officials and financial company executives.
The inspection covered the People’s Bank of China, the three regulators on banking, securities and insurance, the sovereign wealth fund, policy banks, top state-owned commercial banks and financial conglomerates, the two stock exchanges, and the foreign exchange administration.
Although the reports did not mention the names of the targeted officials, it said evidence in some cases had been transferred to upper-level officials at the CCDI and the party’s Organisation Department.
Zhuang Deshui, deputy director of Peking University’s Clean Government Centre, told the South China Morning Post that this round of inspections would uncover several corrupt officials in the financial sector where graft had been rampant in the past years.