Chinese police have launched a two-month nationwide campaign against "underground banks" to quell concerns about cash flowing in and out of the country illegally and maintain order in the country's volatile stock market, a senior security official said on Monday.
Undergound banking has undermined the country's economic security and order of the financial market, Meng Qingfeng, vice minister of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), told the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
Meng, who previously headed the crackdown on "malicious short-selling" in China's stock markets in July, also urged the police to better coordinate with the central bank and the foreign exchanges regulator in the campaign.
The campaign, which is expected to last until late November, will focus on illegal financing in shares markets, funding for terrorist groups, and banking to corrupt officials, according to state media.
A similar campaign was launched in April by the MPS, the State Administration of Foreign Exchanges, and China's central bank to block transfers of illicit money through offshore companies and underground banks.
The campaign uncovered major cases involving 66 underground banks handling assets valued at more than 430 billion yuan ($67.2 billion), Meng said, adding than over 160 suspects have also been detained in relation to the cases.
Some of the crackdowns took place in Guangdong, Liaoning, and Zhejiang Provinces, as well as in Shanghai and the Xinjiang region, according to Xinhua.
The ministry also pledged to dispatch a special task force to areas where underground banking activity has been reported to be severe.