(Yicai Global) May 20 -- China has started investigating the former head of the country's securities watchdog.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has put Liu Shiyu under investigation on suspicion of "violations of laws and discipline," the Communist Party's supervision body said in a statement late yesterday. Liu turned himself in and is cooperating with the probe, it added.

The 57-year-old former banker left the China Securities Regulatory Commission in January, where he had been chairman for three years. Yi Huiman replaced him.

Editor: William Clegg