BEIJING — Chinese securities regulator is continuing to act against capital market violations while expanding opening-up of the financial market.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) handed out administrative penalties of 7.71 billion yuan (around $1.2 billion) last year and in the first quarter of this year, said Yan Qingmin, vice-chairman of the CSRC, at the 2018 Annual Conference of Financial Street Forum ended on May 29.

The fines concerned 294 cases, including insider trading and price manipulation, with 47 people banned from securities trading.

Yan said that China had quadrupled daily quotas for the Shanghai and Shenzhen Hong Kong stock connects from May 1, and Chinese A-shares have been included in the MSCI China Index and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

The scale and quality of direct financing have improved, with IPOs and refinancing totaling 2 trillion yuan from January 2017 to the end of the first quarter this year, while bonds issued in bourses reached 4.5 trillion yuan during the same period.