Some 240 scandals were revealed in China's state-owned commercial banks in the first half of this year, accounting for one-third of the country's total bank scandals, according to an official of the State Banking Regulatory Commission.

These cases involved a total amount of 1.6 billion yuan (198 million US dollars), about half of the total sum of the bank scandals, said Shen Xiaoming, deputy director of the commission's Supervision Department, quoted by Saturday's Economic Information Daily.

Cases each involving more than 1 million yuan (123,500 US dollars) stood at 64, said Shen, who attributed the emergence of the scandals to the deep-going reform of the country's banking system and the intensified efforts to crack down on economic crimes.

The economic losses caused by the scandals would be borne by the banks themselves, and the depositors' interests would not be affected, the official said.

Thus far, China has 189 banks and more than 30,000 credit cooperatives with total assets amounting to 30 trillion yuan (3.7 trillion US dollars). The big four state-owned commercial banks -- the China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China -- have a combined market share of 55 percent.

"It is logical that more and more problems will be exposed during the reform of the banking industry," Shen explained.

Source: Xinhua