A teller counts cash at a bank branch in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province. (Photo: China Daily)

China's top banking and insurance regulator stressed it will relentlessly prevent and control financial risks, accelerate the risk disposal of high-risk financial institutions and step up punishment of financial institution shareholders who violate laws and regulations.

China will actively deal with the pressures of a rebound in nonperforming assets, strictly prevent a resurgence of high-risk shadow banking activities, prevent illegal flows of funds from banks and insurers into the housing market and regulate financial business conducted by internet platforms according to the law, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said at its mid-year work conference earlier this week.

The regulator said it will also continuously improve the financial sector's ability to serve the real economy -- the part of the economy that produces goods and services -- and lead banks and insurers to increase the supply of medium and long-term funds to support major projects and push forward the implementation of regional development strategies.

China's new loans totaled 13.5 trillion yuan ($2.09 trillion) in the first half of this year. Among the total, new loans to the manufacturing industry reached 1.7 trillion yuan, and new agriculture-related loans hit 3.03 trillion.

In the first half, loans to micro and small businesses with total credit lines of up to 10 million yuan per borrower increased by 16.4 percent from the beginning of this year, while loans to private enterprises increased by 8.6 percent. The average interest rate of new loans to those micro and small businesses dropped 0.23 percentage points from that of 2020, according to the CBIRC.