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November 26, 2007 -- Ms. Hu Xiaolian, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China and administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), recently conducted research and investigation in Guangdong province on the implementation of the guiding principles of the Seventeenth National Congress of the CPC, the enhancement and improvement of foreign exchange management, and the promotion of an equilibrium in the balance of payments. During her research and investigation, Hu and her colleagues held symposia with the Guangdong branch and some central sub-branches of the SAFE, and paid visits to locally designated foreign exchange banks and enterprises. Guangdong province, with its developed export-oriented economy, ranks top in China in terms of its foreign trade and utilization of foreign capital; in particular, its foreign exchange business accounts for one-third of the state's total. Hu listened carefully to analyses on the current situation of foreign trade, foreign capital, and foreign exchange receipts and payments, with a focus on the administration of foreign exchange in trade, foreign capital and external debts, and overseas investment, the attack on underground money shops, and so on. In order to facilitate the production and operation of foreign trade enterprises and to effectively monitor the foreign trade activities and the authenticity of foreign exchange receipts and payments, foreign exchange administrative departments have carried out systematized administration over the import and export enterprises. Guangdong branch has employed a "Dynamic Monitoring and Managing System for Foreign Exchange Inflows" in regions under its governance, and has greatly enhanced the efficiency of systematized administration. While inspecting the results of the application of this system, Hu expressed great affirmation and appreciation for the innovative work of the Guangdong and Shenzhen branches. She pointed out that the introduction of this system can enable real-time tracking of the match between foreign exchange receipts and payments of enterprises and their foreign trade activities, as well as enhance monitoring efficiency. On this basis, follow-up monitoring work should be strengthened to urge enterprises to handle foreign exchange receipts and payments in accordance with the laws and regulations and to correct problems in a timely manner. Furthermore, those enterprises experiencing a serious conflict between capital flows and the actual situation of import and export activities should be listed as "highlighted enterprises" for intensified pre-supervision. In recent years, the foreign exchange administrative departments of Guangdong province, in close cooperation with the public security agencies, have reinforced efforts to crack down on underground money shops and illegal foreign exchange transactions, and have destroyed many such shops and dens. Hu specified that cases of underground money shops should be treated with different measures according to the specific situations, and both guidance and punishment should be adopted. Cooperation with the public security agencies should be continuously promoted to strongly fight against those conducting illegal activities such as gambling, smuggling, tax evasion, and money laundering through underground money shops. The quality and level of financial services should be earnestly improved to enhance the competitiveness of business procedure fees, timeliness, and so on. Further reforms should be advanced in order to keep pace with the times, to meet demands for the holding and utilization of foreign exchange by domestic institutions and residents, and to loosen controls on individual foreign investments in an orderly, controllable, and moderate manner. Publicity and education should be strengthened so as to enhance the law-abiding consciousness of domestic institutions and residents to handle foreign exchange business through formal financial institutions. When visiting the designated foreign exchange banks and enterprises, Hu expressed appreciation for their cooperation with the foreign exchange administration. Meanwhile, she pointed out that supervision of China's current foreign exchange administration is mainly carried out through subrogation by designated foreign exchange banks, so the banks should, while offering high- quality services to customers, adhere to the relevant regulations on foreign exchange administration, balance appropriately among management, competition, and profits, and thus contribute to the economic and financial security of the state. Hu emphasized that the foreign exchange administrative departments at all levels should study and carry out the guiding principles of the Seventeenth National Congress of the CPC, earnestly unify their thoughts with the spirit of the CPC Central Committee, consider the actual situation of foreign exchange administration, fully implement the scientific development concept, and promote an equilibrium in the balance of payments. 2007-11-26/en/2007/1126/861.html
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In order to strengthen supervision of cross-border capital flows, perfect examination of the authenticity and conformity of export transactions and foreign exchange collection and settlement, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), the Ministry of Commerce, and the General Administration of Customs (GACC) recently jointly promulgated the "Measures for the Online Inspection of Foreign Exchange Collection and Settlement of Export Proceeds" (hereinafter referred to as "the Measures"), and decided to implement management of online inspection of foreign exchange collection and settlement of export proceeds beginning from July 14, 2008. The SAFE also published the "Notice on Issues regarding Implementation of the Measures for the Online Inspection of Foreign Exchange Collection and Settlement of Export Proceeds." Implementation of online inspection of foreign exchange collection and settlement of export proceeds will check on conditions regarding foreign exchange collection and settlement of export proceeds of enterprises under the condition that their exported goods go through customs, with a view to effectively determining the actual trade background of capital flows under the item of trade in goods so as to ensure the authenticity and conformity of exports and foreign exchange collection and settlement. The Measures stipulate that the foreign exchange collected by an enterprise from exports (including the advance receipts) shall first be put into a to-be-checked account for foreign exchange collected from exports. When an enterprise sells or transfers foreign exchange from the to-be-checked account, the bank shall log onto the online inspection system for foreign exchange collection and settlement of export proceeds and make a note regarding the receivable amount of foreign exchange under the corresponding trade category in the inspection system. The online inspection system for foreign exchange collection and settlement of export proceeds was established by the SAFE, the Ministry of Commerce, and the General Administration of Customs, relying on the China E-port and drawing on the successful experience of online inspection of import payments in foreign exchange in 1998. The online inspection system uses electronic information networking to replace the traditional paper vouchers and certificates to check and supervise foreign exchange collection and settlement under the item of trade in goods. This approach is convenient for banks and enterprises in terms of operations, saving them considerable time, raising efficiency, and also improving regulatory efficacy. In order to continue providing conveniences for legal and standardized operations of trading activities for enterprises, adequate consideration will be given to the different features of each trading category and each industry by providing differential treatment in identifying the corresponding relationship between authenticity and conformity between exports and foreign exchange collection and settlement. To facilitate implementation of the online inspection system for foreign exchange collection and settlement of export proceeds, to perfect statistical supervision of the external debt, to restrict the scale of the short-term external debt, the SAFE simultaneously released the "Circular on Issues concerning Implementation of External Debt Registration and Management under the Item of Corporate Trade in Goods," mandating registration and management of corporate export advance receipts and import deferred payments. Strengthening of the follow-up monitoring of the advance receipts and prospective actual exports is necessary to prevent capital without a real trade background from flowing into China through trade channels to obtain speculative income, while the improvement in the supervision and management of import deferred payments is conducive to controlling potential debt risks and preventing huge capital outflows in the future. While strengthening management of trade credits, the administration will give adequate consideration to the actual needs of special industries and enterprises, such as large complete-sets of equipment and the shipping industry. The online inspection system for foreign exchange collection and settlement of export proceeds will run on a trial basis as of July 14, 2008 and will be put into formal operation as of August 4, 2008. Registration of export advance receipts and import deferred payments will be implemented as of July 14, 2008 and October 1, 2008 respectively. Enforcement of the above two policies will further perfect the methods for inspecting the authenticity of trade in goods, which will help improve China's foreign trade environment, regulate capital inflows and outflows of foreign exchange under the item of trade in goods, resolve the problem of discrepancies between exports and foreign exchange collection and settlement, promote the smooth and healthy development of our country's foreign economy, prevent international economic risks, and create a more favorable environment for further reform and opening-up. (End) 2008-07-02/en/2008/0702/871.html
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September 28, 2007 -- After disclosing for the first time in 2006 the names of over 400 untraceable companies accused of foreign exchange fraud and in order to coincide with the 2007 nationwide Promotion of Honest Business Operations Month, the SAFE recently again disclosed cases of fraud by untraceable enterprises. Since April 2006, the SAFE has implemented a system of disclosure of information regarding illegal foreign exchange activities across the country, regularly revealing the information by means of public releases and online inquiries, in particular exposing information about fraud by untraceable enterprises both on the Web site of the SAFE and in the Financial Times. The 200 cases of fraud in the present disclosure had been discovered in foreign exchange management and law enforcement inspections in recent years. Specifically, about 20 enterprises were found to be involved in illegal transactions of foreign exchange and in illegal transactions of verification documents; most of the other cases involved illegal administrative behavior, such as violations of the foreign exchange verification rules. In their operations, these enterprises violated the relevant laws and regulations of the state regarding foreign exchange administration. In addition, they used their entity qualifications to engage in other illegal behavior or they failed to receive the annual inspection from the industrial and commercial departments according to the provisions. As a result, the foreign exchange administrative departments were unable to put them on record and administer punishment. These behaviors not only disrupted the normal business environment and the orderly competition in the foreign exchange market, but also resulted in hidden dangers to the financial security of the state. Through the disclosure of information on fraudulent activities of enterprises, on the one hand, the SAFE hopes to attract more attention from both enterprises and inspection departments to those entities that engage in illegal behavior, in order to prevent these entities from conducting other illegal activities and endangering enterprises that are involved in normal business activities. On the other hand, the SAFE hopes to caution the operating entities in the foreign exchange market, so as to strengthen the concept of honesty in the foreign exchange market, to guide foreign exchange-related entities to regulate their own businesses, and to create an honest, credible, healthy, and regulated foreign exchange market environment. 2007-09-28/en/2007/0928/855.html
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December 9, 2007 -- Remarkable progress has been made since China launched its pilot projects for the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) and Qualified Domestic Institutional Investors (QDII) systems in 2002. The QFII system has promoted the transformation of investment concepts in China's capital market and the application of advanced investment risk management technologies, raised the global influence of China's capital market, and played an active role in the improvement of the governance structure of domestic listed companies, the sound development of the market, as well as the institutional reform and innovation of the capital market. The market capitalization of securities held by 49 QFIIs has reached nearly RMB 200 billion, making them the main institutional investors in China 's capital market. The QDII system has expanded the investment channels for domestic capital, enabling domestic investors to reasonably allocate their assets throughout the world and to reduce investment risks. Moreover, the system has directed the orderly outflow of capital and promoted an equilibrium in the balance of payments. Currently, all qualified commercial banks, insurance companies, fund companies, and securities companies can conduct QDII business, gradually diversifying the members of the QDII system. In particular, with the release of QDII products by fund companies in September, the QDII business has entered a phase of rapid development. To deepen the opening up of China 's capital market, the investment quota for QFII has been increased to USD 30 billion. Based on the status of China 's balance of payments and the situation of the securities market, together with the relevant departments the SAFE will control the speed of the examination and approval process of new QFII quotas and will encourage investment of qualified foreign medium- and long-term capital into China 's capital market. In addition, the SAFE will expand overseas securities investment by domestic residents, increase foreign securities investment by QDIIs, encourage qualified domestic financial institutions to raise their competitiveness, provide more diversified products that satisfy the needs of domestic investors, and enhance the level of risk management, thus gaining new dominance from participation in global competition under the conditions of economic globalization. 2007-12-09/en/2007/1209/862.html
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Recently, the SAFE and Renmin (Peoples) University of China jointly convened an expert panel discussion, during which the research achievements on the topic of Foreign Exchange Supervision and Construction of a Credit Systemwere demonstrated. This forward-looking theoretical research on the construction of a foreign exchange credit system in accordance with the strategic plan of the State Council for the construction of a social credit system and based on preliminary experiences from the construction of a foreign exchange credit market system, and in light of the actual conditions for foreign exchange management is important work undertaken by the SAFE for the construction of a foreign exchange credit system In recent years, the SAFE has been actively exploring the construction of a foreign exchange credit system and has carried out many important tasks. In 2003, the SAFE worked out a five-year plan for the construction of a foreign exchange credit system. In 2005, it conducted work for disclosure of information on illegal (negative) foreign exchange, thus increasing the costs of dishonesty from illegal and anti-regulatory behavior. In 2006, the SAFE disclosed for the first time over 400 enterprises that had been involved in evasive illegal or anti-regulatory foreign exchange operations. At present, the SAFE has already disclosed 2,516 cases of illegal foreign exchange operations and 627 cases of enterprise fraud. Moreover, the SAFE has actively adopted a credit management method for the daily work of foreign exchange management and introduced a classified supervisory system for oversight and management of abnormal foreign exchange capital. It has implemented in succession the systems of Highlighted Enterprises for Export Receipts and the Watch-list for Foreign Exchange Sales,etc. which target abnormal collections and sales under the trade account. These systems enable the SAFE to realize classified supervision and sound management according to the nature of the different situations. Henceforth, the SAFE will further strengthen the construction of a foreign exchange credit system and continue to carry out theoretical research and practical explorations. 2008-04-17/en/2008/0417/866.html
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In accordance with the requirements of the State Council for further transforming government functions and establishing service-oriented governments as well as promoting e-government administration, and in order to adapt to the need to develop direct investment within the new context, promote the reform of foreign exchange administration for direct investment, and raise management efficiency, service levels, as well as statistical, monitoring, analytical, and pre-warning capabilities for direct investment, and to facilitate an increase in investment, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange has decided to disseminate a nationwide online information system for Direct Investment Foreign Exchange Business beginning in May 2008 on the basis of early pilot programs. The Information System for Direct Investment Foreign Exchange Business is composed of four major functional modules: foreign investment, overseas investment, annual inspections, and statistical analysis. At this time, primarily the foreign direct investment module will be promoted and go online nationwide. A networking data exchange mechanism will be established for the SAFE with banks, enterprises, and accounting firms due to the promotion of the online system. Thus enterprises can apply to the SAFE directly through the Internet for relevant business and at the same time, the SAFE will phase out the use of paper-based vouchers and adopt IC cards in place of the paper-based foreign exchange registration certificates so as to ensure the timeliness, convenience, reliability, and security of business registration, operations, and data transmission in terms of means and increase the statistical, monitoring, and pre-warning levels for cross-border capital under direct investment accounts 2008-04-23/en/2008/0423/867.html
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China International Fund Management Co., Ltd's purchasing quota of foreign exchange for overseas portfolio investment approved 2007-10-12/en/2007/1012/857.html
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China International Fund Management Co., Ltd's purchasing quota of foreign exchange for overseas portfolio investment increased 2007-10-18/en/2007/1018/858.html
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HSBC's purchasing quota of foreign exchange for overseas investment services on behalf of its clients increased 2007-10-27/en/2007/1027/859.html
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June 26, 2007 - In Beijing, the SAFE recently held a briefing meeting on inspection of the foreign exchange transactions of banks. Attendees included representatives from 19 Chinese-funded banks, 4 foreign cooperative banks, and some foreign-funded banks. Ms. Hu Xiaolian, deputy governor of the PBOC and administrator of the SAFE, attended the meeting and delivered a speech. According to Ms. Hu, the disequilibrium in the balance of payments has become increasingly serious. On many occasions, the Party Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to this problem and have proposed clear requests to promote a general equilibrium in the balance of payments and to strengthen improvements in foreign exchange management. One of the key administrative tasks for the current period is to monitor short-term speculative capital inflows, strengthen inspection and management of cross-border capital inflows, especially short-term capital inflows, and seriously deal, according to the law, with foreign exchange inflows without real transaction backgrounds or those with fraudulent reports on export trading volumes. According to the unanimous decision of the Party Central Committee, since last year the SAFE has actively boosted the reform of the foreign exchange management system and further facilitated foreign exchange holdings and use by enterprises and individuals for trade and investment activities. Meanwhile, the SAFE has seriously combated illegal and abnormal short-term capital inflows and foreign exchange sales, thus restraining short-term speculative capital inflows. In terms of foreign exchange receipts and payments under the items of trade, services, capital fund, and external debt as well as some industries like tourism and real estate, relevant foreign exchange inspection departments have carried out special inspections of capital inflows and sales of foreign exchange. Meanwhile, since many of China 's foreign exchange administration policies and regulations are implemented through the banks, key inspections were intensified on the compliance of the foreign exchange transactions of banks and their own foreign exchange collection and sales. This is very necessary and timely for accurately analyzing the cross-border capital flows, discovering the main channels and forms of abnormal capital inflows, searching for policy loopholes, and offering a scientific decision-making basis for reinforcing and improving macro-control. Ms. Hu pointed out that in recent years foreign exchange-designated banks have made great efforts to coordinate with the adjustment of foreign exchange policies, carrying out the tasks of authenticity verification. They have contributed to the healthy development of China 's foreign trade, the steady advancement of the financial opening-up, and the promotion of a general equilibrium in the balance of payments. However, some problems have arisen from the inspections, to which great attention should be paid. Concerning the question of how banks can promote their own healthy development and better implement their responsibilities related to foreign exchange administration, Ms. Hu put forward the following requests. First, banks should properly balance the relationship between their own interests and the national interests. Along with the continual progress in the financial system reform, commercial banks have faced obviously stronger restraints from their shareholders and the market, and their internal management and operating mechanisms have witnessed fundamental changes. The pursuit of interests by banks has poured energy into the development of the financial industry. However, the interests of banks are closely linked to the operation of the macro-economy. While pursuing their own interests, banks should further strengthen their consciousness of the overall situation and take an initiative to carry out national macro policies. Second, banks should properly manage the relationship between passive and active implementation of foreign exchange inspections. So far, most of the authenticity verifications of foreign exchange under the current account and the verifications of the comparatively standard foreign exchange sales and purchases under the capital account have been handled directly by the banks. Therefore, banks are required to fulfill the responsibility of exercising authenticity verifications seriously and to take an initiative to actively carry out the requirements for foreign exchange inspections. Third, banks should properly manage the relationship between commercial competition and fulfilling the subrogation responsibility of the government. With the continual financial opening-up, commercial banks are facing increasingly severe market competition. Banks should compete orderly under the precondition of seriously implementing national macro-economic policies and fulfilling the subrogation responsibility of the government. The competition should not become the solicitation of clients and businesses at the price of failing to carry out inspections. Fourth, banks must properly manage the relationship between their business management and foreign exchange supervision requirements. Due to the special requirements for the business processing and internal management of banks, foreign exchange supervision must be implemented through electronic and IT approaches. In order to fulfill the subrogation responsibility of the government more efficiently and conveniently, banks should further improve their business procedures to satisfy the two requirements. Meanwhile, banks should establish relevant platforms for the collection, processing, and exchange of information so as to receive authentic and accurate data and information, and then should help implement the regulations in practice. Fifth, the banks must properly manage the relationship between financial innovation and compliance. The foreign exchange administrations have been supporting and encouraging financial innovation, and have strengthened enforcement efforts by adjusting relevant policies and employing a series of measures for developing foreign exchange derivatives and expanding financial investment abroad. While enhancing innovation consciousness, the banks should intensify the risk concepts and master the direction of the innovation from the perspective of the long-term healthy development of both themselves and the financial industry, not only meeting the needs of clients, but also satisfying the relevant regulations and the requirements for national macro-control. Ms. Hu emphasized that in the near term the foreign exchange administrations would carry out a special inspection on implementation of control of the size of the short-term external debt and on the execution of the administrative regulations by banks throughout China . Hence, all banks should prepare for this in advance, seriously and actively carrying out self-checking and coordination. Mr. Deng Xianhong, deputy administrator of the SAFE, reported on the illegal behavior found from the inspections of the foreign exchange business. He put forward that generally all the foreign exchange-designated banks have attached increasingly more importance to the compliance of their foreign exchange business operations, and their legal consciousness in terms of operations has been improved; but certain illegal behaviors in the foreign exchange business still exist in some banks. These illegal behaviors can be mainly classified into three types. First, responsibility for authenticity examination is not fulfilled in some banks, for example, handling foreign exchange collection and sales for clients against the rules, violating the related rules about foreign exchange loans, and breaching the administrative regulations concerning the verification business for exports. Such behaviors have led to inflows of some foreign speculative capital through trade or investment channels, and some of the capital even flows into the domestic real estate and stock markets in disguised forms, thus having some negative effect on the healthy development of China 's macro-control and economy. Second, for some banks, illegal behaviors exist in the operation of the foreign exchange business, such as policy-incompliance in the comprehensive position management of foreign exchange sales and purchases, poor management of short-term external debt, illegal treatments of their own foreign exchange sales business, and posting exchange rates beyond the stipulated floating ranges, etc. All of these have seriously harmed the implementation effect of the policies, not only disregarding the requirements for risk control and the sound operation of the banks, but also bringing pressure on implementing the monetary policies of the Central Bank and maintaining an equilibrium in the balance of payments. Third, in some banks, the quality of data reporting is poor, the business or accounting system cannot meet the current regulatory requirements, and the balance of payments fails to be managed according to the rules. During the 2006 annual inspection, the SAFE punished 19 Chinese-funded banks and 10 foreign-funded banks that were found to be violating the relevant foreign exchange administrative regulations. The results of the illegal behaviors discovered during the 2006 special inspection of the external debt of banks and the 2007 special inspection of the foreign exchange collection and sales of banks are in the process of being handled. 2007-06-26/en/2007/0626/842.html