Booth of Tencent Cloud at the China International Big Data Industry Expo 2021 in Guiyang, Southwest China's Guizhou Province on May 27, 2021 Photo: Chi Jingyi/GT

Chinese tech giant Tencent's online payment platform Tenpay was fined 2.78 million yuan ($434,792) by the local branch of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, where Tencent is headquartered.

The branch recently released the latest round of penalty decisions. Tencent was among an array of banks and securities firms that were fined for breaking foreign exchange transactions rules. The fines came as part of authorities' increased scrutiny of financial technology companies.

Tenpay failed to submit relevant materials and handle foreign exchange sales services in accordance with regulations. The firm also stands accused of conducting foreign exchange business beyond their scope of registration, according to the foreign exchange market regulator.

"In response to the problems found in the 2019-2020 routine inspections, Tenpay has formulated an improvement plan at the fastest speed, and implemented it item by item. So far, the rectification has been completed," Tenpay said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Sunday.

"We will further strengthen compliance management under the guidance of the Shenzhen branch of SAFE," it added.

Since it was granted payment licenses in 2011 by the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, Tenpay has been fined several times.

At the end of 2020, the central bank fined Tenpay 8.7 million yuan fine for breaches including offering payment services for illegal transactions.

Global Times