Several banks in Hainan and other regions of China have restricted the use of some customers' ATM cards due to suspected money-laundering or other illegal activities, according to the state-run Securities Daily.
For accounts with anomalies, the bank will lock them, but as long as there are no problems with the account, cardholders can unlock them at any branch nationwide and it will not affect regular use, the newspaper quoted a customer service staff of a large state-owned bank in Hainan as saying.
This came as China's banking regulator yesterday said it is investigating an inspector at its bureau in Henan province, which has seen protests by depositors unable to retrieve funds following suspected fraud at a number of rural lenders.
The inspector is suspected of "serious disciplinary violations and is currently under disciplinary review" and has "accepted" the investigation, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said.
The statement follows an announcement from regulators on Thursday about the second round of repayment to depositors whose funds were frozen due to banking fraud.
Some deposits at four lenders in Henan and one in eastern Anhui province were frozen in what authorities said was a complex scam involving a private financial group that had stakes in the lenders and which had faked data by colluding with bank staff and siphoning off funds illegally.
In other news, China's state media outlet People's Daily published a bylined article saying it is confident in China's economic development.
