Mainland courts tackle 113 bank bribery cases
Industry regulator unveils prosecutions involving 164 people and 26m yuan
China's banking regulator unveiled its latest anti-corruption campaign yesterday by releasing figures detailing the extent of commercial bribery cases prosecuted last year.
The courts prosecuted just 113 cases of commercial bribery in the banking industry, involving 164 people and a total sum of 26 million yuan, according to the China Banking Regulatory Commission.
Most of the cases occurred at state-owned commercial banks and rural finance cooperatives.
'That number is certainly on the low side compared to the likely true scale of bribery,' Moody's senior banking analyst May Yan said.
'Risk management and internal control systems have been improving in China, especially at the listed banks, but it is fair to say most banks are at a very early stage in terms of strengthening these systems.'
The CBRC figures refer to cases in which individuals received cash bribes or gifts in return for granting bank loans or contracts to upgrade bank systems and technology.
They did not include high-profile cases such as that of Zhang En-zhao, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for taking 19 bribes totalling 4.18 million yuan during his tenure as chairman of China Construction Bank between 2001 and 2004.
'That case was dealt with by the central level authorities so it is not included in our figures,' CBRC inspection bureau director Gong Jie said.
In 2005, the government discovered 1,272 criminal corruption cases, including embezzlement, theft, fraud and bribery, involving a total of 3.1 billion yuan, although 784 of those cases happened earlier and were only discovered in that year.
The CBRC was established in 2003 and has a staff of 25,000 employees, most of them transferred from the central bank's banking supervisory department.
'It is a new agency so their experience in supervising banks is not that great and they are still in the catching-up stage compared with international norms,' Ms Yan said.
But she noted the agency's bank inspections are becoming increasingly intensive.
Mr Gong stressed the importance of self-regulation at the banks.
He said the regulator would increase its cooperation with other agencies, including the public security apparatus, to ensure more cases of bribery were brought to court.
The CBRC established an anti-commercial bribery division in February last year with the regulator's chairman, Liu Mingkang, as its head.
The move was part of a wider crackdown on China's rampant corruption, a campaign which has been championed by President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao and led to the downfall of Shanghai party secretary (and Hu rival) Chen Liangyu as well as numerous officials and business figures across the country last year.
