Source: GT Published: 2024-02-02

S&P Ratings (China) Co has been warned and fined 2.12 million yuan ($300,000) for not conducting credit rating business in accordance with legal procedures, China's central bank announced on Friday.

S&P Ratings (China) Co has been issued a warning and fined 2.12 million yuan. Eastham, the director of the company's rating analysis at the time, has been warned and fined 30,000 yuan. The decision of the penalty was made on November 7, 2023. according to a notice published on the site of the People's Bank of China(PBC), China's central bank, on Friday.

The penalty was handed to S&P Ratings (China) Co for not following the statutory rating procedures and business rules in conducting credit rating business, failing to submit reports to the credit rating industry regulatory authority or its designated agencies as required, and violating the principle of consistency, according to the notice.

This is believed to be the first time that the China unit of S&P Ratings has been fined by the central bank. There was no public information available regarding such fines on S&P Ratings (China) Co previously.

The penalty on the China unit of S&P Ratings is in accordance with the law is a manifestation of law-based regulation, Dong Shaopeng, a senior research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Friday.

The administrative penalty information disclosed on the website of PBC on Friday shows that a total of six institutions were fined approximately 34.47 million yuan.

All financial institutions should operate in accordance with the law and regulations, and regulators should treat all institutions equally and regulate them according to the law, Dong said.

The S&P Global Ratings was also fined 1.1 million euros ($1.19 million) by the European Securities and Markets Authority due to publishing a number of credit scores before the relevant securities had been issued, Reuters reported in March 2023.