China foreign exchange regulator fines Tencent's Tenpay for misconduct

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's foreign exchange regulator said it fined Tencent Holding's Tenpay for violating foreign exchange rules, as authorities step up supervision of the country's fintech industry.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) Shenzhen branch fined Tenpay, Tencent's online payment platform, 2.78 million yuan ($436,000) for misconduct, including conducting foreign exchange business beyond the scope of its registration, according to a statement posted late Friday on the regulator's website.

The FX regulator also gave the company a number of warnings, ordered it to rectify the violations and confiscate illegal gains, the statement said.

"In response to the problems found in the routine inspection in 2019-2020, Tenpay has immediately formulated an improvement plan and implemented it item by item, and has now completed the rectification of all of them," Tenpay said in a statement to Reuters on Monday.

It added that the company will further strengthen compliance management under the guidance of SAFE's Shenzhen branch.

China launched a widespread clampdown on its technology sector this year, with the competition regulator in particular dishing out fines and warnings and conducting investigations into the biggest names in the "platform economy".

($1 = 6.3821 yuan)

(Reporting by Winni Zhou and Brenda Goh; editing by Richard Pullin)