Presidents of the five largest commercial banks will be held accountable for criminal activity in provincial branches involving more than 10 million yuan (1.4 million U.S. dollars), the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said on Monday.
These banks include the state-owned "big four" -- the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Bank of China (BOC), China Construction Bank and the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) -- and the Bank of Communications (BOCOM).
An official of the CBRC said that this was the first time specific standards had been set, although senior bank executives were investigated and punished in some previous cases.
If cases involving more than 5 million yuan occur in city-level branches -- or more than 10 million yuan in sub-branches -- the respective executives will be held responsible and their superiors will face administrative penalties, said the statement.
The CBRC will strictly investigate each criminal case, especially those involving more than 1 million yuan, this year, said the statement. However, it didn't specify exactly what would happen in such cases.
The commission also demanded tightened internal controls, it said.
Last year, two ABC employees were sentenced to death for embezzling 51 million yuan from the Handan branch in the northern province of Hebei. Five bank officials, including Deng Zhenguo, vice-president of ABC's Hebei Province branch, and four officials in ABC's branch in Handan city, have been sacked.
The theft, believed to be the country's largest, rang alarms over supervisory loopholes.
In 2007, three major banks -- BOC, BOCOM and China Merchants Bank (CMB) -- were found to have issued troubled loans valued at more than 9.3 billion yuan over a five-year period. Most of the loans went to unqualified real estate companies and fraudulent personal mortgages, according to a report from the National Audit Office issued last July.
The BOC was also suspected of 21 cases involving illegal activities and the BOCOM and CMB were each suspected of eight cases, said the report.
(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2008) |