CHINA’S foreign exchange regulator said Friday that recent media reports about forex controls are untrue and disturb normal market operations.

    The State Administration of Foreign Exchange would continue to crack down on illegal activity in the forex market, a notice posted on its microblog account said.

    The government has been intensifying a campaign to put the brakes on the depreciation of the yuan, including tightening controls on capital outflows. The yuan fell more than 6.5 percent against the U.S. dollar last year.

    Earlier Friday, Bloomberg reported that the central bank had asked some banks to stop processing cross-border yuan payments until they balance inflows and outflows.

    Citing unidentified people familiar with the matter, it said the directions, issued verbally Wednesday, required lenders to show at the end of every month that the amount of outgoing yuan matches the sum that comes in, it reported.

    (SD-Agencies)