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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
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May 25, 2007 - The Balance of Payments Statistical Branch of the National Statistical Society of China (hereinafter referred to as the BOP Statistical Branch) was recently established in Beijing . The first leadership group and organizations were elected at the meeting. Mr. Li Dongrong, deputy administrator of the SAFE, was present and delivered a speech. Mr. Li Gang, secretary general of the National Statistical Society of China, and Mr. Tang Sining, head of the Financial Survey and Statistics Department of the PBOC, also attended the meeting and congratulated the BOP Statistical Branch on its establishment. Li Dongrong pointed out that the statistics in China 's balance of payments are facing new challenges as the international economy has witnessed an expanding scope and the demands from macro-economic decision-making have been increasing. First, the volume of statistical data has increased rapidly and accordingly the statistical methods and approaches require improvement. The task of maintaining integrated, accurate, and timely statistics has become more arduous. Second, the position of the balance of payments has become more and more complex, and its connections with the world economy and other aspects of the national economy have become closer. It is more difficult to master the development rules of the balance of payments and to solve in-depth economic issues. Third, the functions and social effects of serving the economy and society through statistical analysis of the balance of payments have not been fully utilized. The laws and regulations relevant to the reporting, collection, and application of statistical data need to be improved. Fourth, the development of China 's economy requires a team that is proficient in both theory and practice, and dedicated to a statistical analysis of the balance of payments. Therefore, the BOP Statistical Branch was set up at an appropriate time. It will infuse new effective strength into the statistical work of the balance of payments, provide a platform for studying academic theory, enhance the way of thinking on statistical work, enrich the statistical approaches, and improve the theoretical level of the statistics. Li Dongrong expressed hopes that the BOP Statistical Branch, serving as a stage, will create an academic atmosphere for research on the statistical analysis of the balance of payments, master the operations and change in the rules of the balance of payments through carrying out research on the economic phenomena and the internal reasons behind the statistical data, thus improving the intrinsic value of statistics in the balance of payments, providing a scientific basis for national macro-economic analysis and decision-making, and playing a consultative role in promoting an equilibrium in the balance of payments. He proposed several tasks for the work of the Branch, as follows: First, the Branch should always stick to the principles of seeking truth from facts and combining theory with practice, and achieve good results under the guidance of the principles. Second, the Branch should guarantee the positioning of its work and set a solid foundation for its development. Third, the Branch should strengthen analysis and research and make use of its advisory function in making policies on the national macro-economy and the balance of payments. Fourth, the Branch should establish service awareness and embody its own value in the development of market entities. Fifth, the Branch should carry on the spirit of unity and cooperation and establish a statistical analysis team with a solid theoretical foundation, rich experience in practice, and active ideas about innovation. Ms. Han Hongmei, head of the BOP Statistical Branch, presented a report entitled "Establish a Platform and Utilize the Advantages, Promote the Vigorous Development of Statistical Work in the Balance of Payments." She put forward that based on the ideas of pioneering and the principles of being practical and innovative, the BOP Statistical Branch would devote itself to the establishment of a professional platform which is full of a spirit of innovation, has a good incentive mechanism, and is oriented to statistical practices in the balance of payments. The Branch must reach achievements in four respects, such as making clear the urgency of the times, building up its professional authority, improving the popularity of its business, and increasing its ability for acceptance and inclusion. In 2007, the work of the Branch shall focus on the central target of promoting a general equilibrium in the balance of payments, carry out a scientific view of development in an in-depth manner, boost all the basic work, improve the Branchs organizational construction and functions, and develop various timely activities such as theoretical investigation and research and business training. 2007-05-25/en/2007/0525/841.html
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August 6, 2007 - Recently, the SAFE Shenzhen Branch, together with the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau, successfully cracked down on large-scale underground money shops with an organized structure and a clear work division. Six criminal suspects including the money shop boss with the surname of Du were arrested on the spot and 55 accounts (about RMB 4.2 million) involved in the case were frozen. According to a preliminary investigation, Du illegally operated the money shop in Shenzhen for seven or eight years. From 2006 to May 2007, the trading amount of the Shenzhen office alone reached over RMB 4.3 billion. In the three corporate accounts controlled by Du, the accumulated trading amount from January 2006 to June 25, 2007 reached RMB 1.78 billion, which was comprised of revenue of RMB 970 million and expenditures of RMB 810 million. In terms of industries, the trading funds related to real estate reached RMB 130 million, and those related to the capital market reached RMB 105 million. Some industries like trade and marketing involved largest amount of RMB 453 million. In terms of the regional distribution, clients were in all 31 provinces and cities of the country and the main VIP clients were concentrated in the coastal areas, such as Guangdong (excluding Shenzhen), Jiangsu , and Zhejiang . In terms of trading entities, enterprises, even many well-known domestic large-scale state-owned enterprises, occupied the main position. In terms of the use of the funds, the funds were mainly related to the makeup of the processing fees, the receipt of export proceeds, fuel payments, home purchase payments, security deposits for the conveyance of land, portfolio investments, advance payments, and domestic guarantees, etc. At present, the SAFE is closely cooperating with the public security agencies to sort out the fund transactions under the accounts controlled by Du's money shop and to collect further evidence of the illegal transactions of the money shop. 2007-08-06/en/2007/0806/843.html
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China Everbright Bank's purchasing quota of foreign exchange for overseas investment services on behalf of its clients approved 2006-11-27/en/2006/1127/815.html
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Data of China 's external debts at the end of September, 2006 released 2006-12-28/en/2006/1228/818.html
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QFII investment quota of Schroder Investment Management Limited approved 2006-12-25/en/2006/1225/816.html
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QFII investment quota of INVESCO Asset Management Limited increased 2006-12-25/en/2006/1225/817.html
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QFII investment quota of Nomura Securities Co., Ltd increased 2006-11-15/en/2006/1115/814.html
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QFII investment quota of ING BANK N.V. increased. 2006-04-26/en/2006/0426/782.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