China to tighten stock market supervision

BEIJING - China will tighten supervision of stock markets to prevent systematic financial risks, said an official with the country's securities regulator on Sunday.

"We will fully implement compliance risk management, standardize investment banking business and keep enriching financial products," said Li Chao, deputy head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) at a press conference.

Li noted that stock markets fluctuations in 2015 were a painful lesson for regulators.

In 2016, regulators stopped the expansion of some financial companies and dealt with illegal acts, Li said.

Regulators imposed more than 200 administrative measures against securities firms, fund managers and others who were found to be acting improperly, he added.

The insurance regulator said Saturday that it had restricted stock trading by Evergrande Life, a unit of property conglomerate Evergrande Group, for one year due to irregular operations.

On Friday, the insurance regulator barred Yao Zhenhua, chairman of Foresea Life Insurance, from the insurance industry for 10 years for irregular market operations.