China tells banks to ensure financial security
BEIJING (Reuters) - With 200 days to go before the Beijing Olympics start in August, China has ordered its banks to step up their computer infrastructure to ensure that no financial mishaps happen during the Games.
Beijing has pulled out all the stops in preparing for what it views as a major coming-out party, spending billions of dollars on venues, new subway lines and a beautification campaign.
Jiang Dingzhi, vice chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said that the country's banks needed to be extra vigilant to ensure that no embarrassing slip-ups occurred.
"Banks must ensure that during the Olympic period, banking services are completely safe, to present a good image of the Chinese banking industry," Jiang said in a statement on the agency's Web site.
The call echoes a similar one by the civil aviation regulator, which earlier this month vowed tough punishments for airlines that are chronically late.
Beijing has spent enormous sums cleaning up its banking sector over the past several years, but cases of embezzlement and fraud have persisted, and authorities say that economic crimes such as credit card fraud are on the rise.
(Reporting by Jason Subler; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
