Ex-Chinese central bank deputy governor Fan expelled from Communist Party

Fan Yifei, vice governor of the PBOC, attends a news conference during ongoing session of the NPC in Beijing

BEIJING (Reuters) -A former deputy governor of China's central bank, Fan Yifei, has been expelled from the Communist Party and removed from his post for serious violations of discipline and law, state media CCTV reported on Friday.

Fan, 59, held the deputy governor post of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) since early 2015 but was suspended and under investigation by China's top anti-corruption watchdog since November last year.

Reuters has been unable to contact him for comment.

After the investigation, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection found Fan accepted banquets, trips, golfing and other activities in violation of regulations for a long time meanwhile receiving gifts and money, CCTV said.

He "relied on finance, ate on finance", "made money with money" as well as engaging in power-for-money deals in the name of "investment" for a long time, the media report said.

Fan also took advantage his position to make profits for others in loan financing and business operations, and illegally accepted huge amount of property, according to CCTV.

President Xi Jinping has stepped up efforts in recent years to weed out corrupt Communist Party officials in the financial sector.

Several senior PBOC officials, including Fan and former head of monetary policy department Sun Guofeng, have been removed for corruption charges.

(Reporting by Ellen Zhang and Ryan Woo; editing by John Stonestreet and Angus MacSwan)