Central Bank Slaps Hefty Fines on Three Major Financial Institutions

What’s new: China’s central bank handed out heavy penalties Friday to three major financial institutions, citing violations in areas including customer protection, information collection and risk management.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) issued a 39.9 million yuan ($5.5 million) fine to Ping An Bank, a subsidiary of Ping An Insurance Group, and confiscated 18.5 million yuan as illegal gains. The joint stock bank was punished for 10 counts of violations such as breaches in rules governing account management, customer protection, client verification and information collection, and failure to report suspicious transactions. Twelve individuals in the bank were also fined.