To implement the requirements of the Central Committee of the Communist Part of China (CPC) on coordinating the novel coronavirus epidemic prevention and control with economic and social development, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has recently released the Circular on Optimizing Foreign Exchange Administration to Support Foreign-related Business Growth (SAFE Document No. 8 [2020]) (Hereinafter referred to as Circular), with the aim of simplifying foreign exchange business processes, optimizing foreign exchange services, improving cross-border trade and investment facilitation, and supporting resumption of work to drive high-quality growth of the foreign-related economy.

The Circular is outlined as follows: first, rolling out nationwide the facilitation reform for receipts and payments under the capital account. Second, cancelling registration for special foreign exchange refunding. Third, simplifying registration management for some capital account businesses. Fourth, relaxing the requirements on exporters for paying domestic foreign exchange loans with foreign exchange purchased. Fifth, facilitating the use of the electronic data interchange (EDI) for foreign exchange businesses. Sixth, optimizing foreign exchange settlement by banks for cross-border e-commerce. Seventh, simplifying endorsement procedures for business reviews. Eighth, supporting banks to innovate financial services.

Following the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the SAFE will continue to deepen the foreign exchange reform and step upimplementation of facilitation policies to boost the growth of the real economy.