Troubled Sichuan Trust has been fined RMB 34.9 million ($5.4 million) — marking one of the biggest fines ever levied against a Chinese trust company — for conducting quasi-shadow banking businesses and issuing illicit loans, a provincial banking regulator said, reported Caixin.
China has put the once free-wheeling $3 trillion trust industry under closer oversight as regulators have grown concerned at financial risks in the sector, which plays an important role in financing by providing loans to high-risk companies and those who have difficulty getting credit from traditional banks.
The southwestern province-based company was fined for 13 transgressions of the country’s Banking Supervision Law, according to a statement issued Friday by the Sichuan branch of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC).