China Construction Bank has punished 474 employees this year after an audit discovered many irtegularitics,
Beijing Youth Daily reported. The National Audit Office found more than Ynlbn in fake loans
were made by eight branches in Guangdong province over several years up to 2001. Other
problems included fictional profit-and-loss figures and secret accounts run by individual
loan officers. Even so, the bank posted an openiting profit ofYn2 I .78bn in the first half of
2003, an increase of 34 per cent from a year earlier.
A separate investigation into
the Agricul-tural Development Bank found that US$110m had been lent to a company that
used the founds to play the stockmarket. Its pre-tax profits in the first six months of 2003
rose almost 60 per cent to Yn5.Sbn.
Meanwhile, the Industrial and Commercial
Bank of China said it had punished
38 officials following a probe that uncovered
irregularities totalling Yn I 85m. The most serious problems were found in the central
provinces of Sichuan and Hubei.