China's regulators last night confirmed widespread reports that a group of financial institutions and listed companies will be punished for stock market violations - the first time Beijing has made the clean-up official after months of speculation.
Beijing said it would fine, suspend from proprietary trading and seize ill-gotten gains from Shenzhen Development Bank, the Shanghai branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Shenyin & Wanguo Securities, Haitong Securities, Guangdong Guangfa Securities, J&A Securities and Guangshen Railway.
Senior executives of the financial institutions and listed companies would be dismissed, disciplined and denied access to the mainland financial and securities markets.
Industry sources say there could be more punishments to come in Beijing's bid to rein in China's overheated stock markets and weed out financial irregularities in the scandal-ridden industry.
The regulatory action is the most severe since a billion-dollar bond scandal that rocked the country's securities industry in 1995.
The decision was made after thorough investigations by the Securities Committee of the State Council, the People's Bank of China, the State Auditing Administration, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Xinhua (the New China News Agency) said.
