China Fines Six Banks for Lending to Stock Purchases (Update3)
By Josephine Lau
June 18 (Bloomberg) -- China's banking regulator fined six banks for making loans that were illegally invested in shares, the first sanctions announced after a yearlong investigation aimed at cooling speculation and curbing financial risks.
China Merchants Bank Co., Bank of China Ltd. and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. were among eight banks cited for failing in their scrutiny of 4.5 billion yuan ($590 million) of loans to China Nuclear Engineering Group and China Shipping (Group) Co., the China Banking Regulatory Commission said today.
The findings were released after China's key stock index closed at a record for the first time in three weeks. China's stocks tumbled the most in 10 years on February 27, after the government announced plans to crack down on lending for share purchases.
``This sends a strong signal that the authorities are serious about cooling the stock market,'' said Chi Lo, director of investment research at Ping An of China Asset Management. ``It's part of government efforts to clean up the assets market, both stocks and real estate.''
The investigation into banks' lending for stock investment ``is still going on,'' said the regulatory commission's spokesman Xia Lingwu after the statement was released. ``It's part of our daily work.''
China's CSI 300 Index, which has tripled in a year, has recovered all its losses from a plunge that followed the government's decision last month to triple the tax on share trades.
Banks Fined
The Beijing-based regulator named China Merchants, Bank of China Ltd. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., Shenzhen Development Bank Co., Industrial Bank Co. China Citic Bank Corp., Bank of Beijing and Bank of Communications Co. in its statement today.
Bank of China, ICBC, China Merchants, Shenzhen Development, Industrial Bank and Citic will be fined because they failed to scrutinize loans made to China Shipping, the regulator said. As much as 89 percent of the 2.7 billion yuan of loans to China Shipping were used to apply for stocks in initial public offers, the regulator said.
A sub branch of China Merchants in Shanghai will be banned from making any loans for six months, the CBRC said.
In addition to being fined, the six banks will also have some of their operations halted and senior-level managers removed, the statement said, without providing further details. The State- owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, which oversees the government's assets, will deal with China Shipping and China Nuclear Engineering, the bank regulator said.
China Nuclear Engineering
The press office of SASAC, as the state assets agency is known, said it wasn't immediately able to comment.
China Nuclear Engineering, a Beijing-based builder of nuclear power plants, illegally used 87.3 percent of the 2.4 billion yuan it borrowed from lenders including Bank of Beijing and Bank of Communications, the statement said.
Of this amount, China Nuclear invested 612 million yuan in real estate and 132 million yuan in the stock market and other areas. Bank of Beijing is 19.9 percent owned by ING Groep NV.
Bank of Beijing's lapses in monitoring resulted in 30 million yuan of its loans to China Nuclear being illegally diverted to real estate investments, the bank said in an e-mailed statement today.
The bank started investigating loans made by all its branches after the industry regulator found irregularities and punished employees who were found guilty, according to the statement. All the loans that were put to illicit uses have since been returned, it said.
Bank of China has ``stepped up monitoring of loans,'' spokesman Wang Zhaowen said by phone following the statement's release today. Wu Rong, China Nuclear Engineering's corporate secretary, declined to comment.
To contact the reporter for this story: Josephine Lau in Beijing at jlau22@bloomberg.net
|