China banks' regulator fines 19 banks over loan fraud case

ICBC and PSBC are amongst the fined banks.

China banks' regulator, China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), announced in a statement that it has imposed fines on 19 Chinese banks amounting to $8.36m (54.5 million yuan) over a $3b (19 billion yuan) loan fraud case.

According to CBRC, criminals pledged gold of low purity to get loans from banks such as Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC). The regulator said the banks involved lack in internal controls and has poor management of loans and collaterals.

“The banks were overly obsessed with pursuing the scale and speed of business development, without knowing their customers," CBRC said.

The regulator fined four ICBC branches with 6.5 million yuan and three PSBC branches with 10 million yuan. CBRC also punished 104 bank employees involved in the case.