(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-05 20:58

China's public security authorities, central bank and foreign exchange regulators jointly broke up more than 70 illegal banking organs last year, according to an annual anti-money-laundering report by the People's Bank of China.

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The report released on Monday does not give the exact number of cases, but says they involved $3.03 billion.

Last year, the central bank made 1,599 administrative investigations nationwide, and submitted to investigating authorities 1,239 items of evidence concerning money laundering.

Administrative penalties were imposed on 662 banking institutions that violated anti-money-laundering rules, up 10 percent on the previous year. The penalties involved more than 40 million yuan ($5.35 million) in fines, down 28 percent.