China ups crackdown on violations of listed firms

BEIJING -- China's stock exchanges have stepped up their crackdown on listed firms' violations in information disclosure and operation in a move to improve corporate governance.

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange has issued 62 punishments for such practices since the beginning of this year, compared with only 37 during the same period in 2018.

These violations included illegal guarantees, financial frauds and failures of due diligence by intermediary agencies.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange handled 86 cases involving violations of information disclosure in the first half of this year, up from 75 during the same period last year.

Both bourses said they would take more steps to raise the costs of violations and offer more training to raise awareness among listed firms.