China Banking Regulatory Commission said that it has unearthed irregularities involving CNY767.1 Billion in mainland banks during 2005. This amounts to a 31% year-over-year increase. Irregularities were found among about 1,200 financial institutions. CBRC did not give a breakdown of the violations it had managed to find but said its audit had uncovered 1,272 criminal cases and the investigation had helped to recover CNY1.47 billion. CBRC took credit for its work, saying that its work is helping in the cleansing up of the domestic banking sector. Foreign banks including Citigroup Inc. and Deutsche Bank among others have shown keen interest to buy stakes in Chinese banks to tap the Chinese market valued at US$1.7 trillion in personal savings.
