(Yicai Global) Aug. 12 -- China's banking regulatory has banned some 57 banking practitioners from the field so far this year for a range of violations largely relating to illegal mortgages.

The punishments also involved illegal fundraising, bribery, internal control issues and fraudulent loans, Securities Daily reported today. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission's Liaoning office banned three staffers for life in April for issuing illicit mortgages, and its Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region arm handed out two lifelong bans to employees who granted illegal real estate development loans last month, the report added.

Workers at rural commercial banks picked up the most bans: 10, followed by nine at state-owned banks, eight at rural credit cooperatives and six at commercial banks.

China's financial watchdog has stepped up supervision in recent years and from 2017 through the first quarter of this year had handed out 8,888 penalties in the banking sector, involving 5,305 workers and 4,432 institutions.  The punishments have included 365 lifelong bans, 450 license revocations and fines totaling CNY5.5 billion (USD779 million).

The regulator has been more focused on punishing institutions but has hiked penalties for individuals to better control the risks at the origin and prevent practitioners from breaking the law, Wang Lijuan, a researcher at Hengfeng Bank, told Securities Daily.

Editor: James Boynton