By Jonathan Cheng

Chinese financial regulators on Thursday ordered some of the nation's largest technology companies to rectify financial business practices seen as risky and violating antitrust rules, the latest sign of heightened scrutiny into the sector.

China's central bank, together with the country's banking, insurance, securities and foreign-exchange regulators, summoned 13 technology firms and urged them to delink their payment tools with some financial products. They also urged the companies to bring their online lending and deposit-taking businesses in line with regulatory requirements.

The firms included Tencent Holdings Ltd., ByteDance Ltd. and the financial arms of Meituan, Didi Chuxing Technology Co., JD. com Inc. and Trip.com Group Ltd., according to a statement published Thursday by the People's Bank of China.

The move comes after months in which Beijing halted a record initial public offering by financial-technology giant Ant Group Co. and imposed a record antitrust fine on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

--Grace Zhu contributed to this article.

Write to Jonathan Cheng at jonathan.cheng@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-29-21 0904ET