BEIJING - The Chinese central bank has handed out hefty fines to financial institutions for money laundering practices as the government steps up efforts to counter such activities.

In targeted crackdowns last year, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) fined institutions a total of 166 million yuan (about 23.7 million US dollars) for money laundering, up 54.55 percent year on year, according to a report by the central bank.

Meanwhile, the central bank branches meted out fines of 23.34 million yuan to financial institutions.

Since China's anti-money laundering law became effective in 2007, supervision has improved, covering almost every financial sector, such as banking, securities, insurance, non-banking payment institutions and bank card clearing institutions.

In 2018, the central bank had rated financial institutions across the country for anti-money laundering and conducted regulation accordingly.