China exchanges still rife with illegal behaviour - paper

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's trading exchanges are still rife with illegal behaviour despite a recent crackdown by authorities, the official China Securities Journal reported on Wednesday, citing a recent meeting of the country's securities regulator. The paper said a government-led rectification campaign had helped to bring the situation under control, but there has been a "resurgence" of regulatory breaches at some exchanges. It said some precious metal and crude oil trading venues were suspected of engaging in illegal futures trading activities, while others were suspected of a range of offences including manipulating market prices and defrauding investors. Regulators attending the meeting will work to rectify the problems over the next six months, the newspaper said. China has put its exchanges under greater scrutiny after blaming a crash in its stock markets in 2015 on widespread irregularities, including price manipulation. The China Securities Regulatory Commission has also been accused of allowing the families of its officials to trade in stocks.. China's police authorities set up five specialist units last year to deal with financial crimes. (Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)