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ADMINISTRATIVE RULES FOR THE REPORTING OF LARGE-VALUE AND SUSPICIOUS RMB PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS

Order of the People's Bank of China

No.2

In accordance with the Law of the People's Republic of China on the People's Bank of China and other laws and regulations , the Administrative Rules for the Reporting of Large-Value and Suspicious RMB Payment Transactions has been adopted at the 7th executive meeting on September 17, 2002, and is hereby promulgated for implementation as of March 1, 2003. President of the People's Bank of China Zhou Xiaochuang

January 3, 2003

Administrative Rules for the Reporting of Large-Value and Suspicious RMB Payment Transactions

Article 1

These Rules are formulated in accordance with Law of the People's Republic of China on the People's Bank of China and other laws and regulations in order to strengthen supervision over RMB payment transactions, regulate RMB payment transaction reporting activities and prevent bank payment and settlement from being misused for money laundering and other law-violating and criminal activities.

Article 2

RMB payment transactions referred to in these Rules are RMB-denominated monetary payment made by institutions and individuals through bills, bank cards, remittance, entrusted collection, custodian acceptance, online payment and cash and its clearing transactions.

Large-value payment transactions refer to any RMB payment transaction whose value is above the specified threshold.

Suspicious payment transactions refer to those RMB payment transactions with abnormality in amount, frequency, direction, use or nature.

Article 3

Policy banks, commercial banks, urban and rural credit cooperatives and their unions, postal savings institutions (hereinafter referred to as financial institutions) licensed by the People's Bank of China and established within the territory of the People's Republic of China shall abide by these Rules when handling payment transactions.

Article 4

The People's Bank of China and its branch offices shall be charged with supervising and administering reporting of payment transactions.

Article 5

The People's Bank of China shall establish a payment transaction monitoring system.

Article 6

Financial institutions shall create specialized anti-money laundering posts in their operational offices, specify their responsibilities, and have specified staff record, analyze and report large-value payment transactions and suspicious payment transactions.

Article 7

The following transaction payments constitute large-value transaction payments:

(1)

Any single credit transfer above RMB one million yuan between legal persons, other organizations and firms created by self-employed persons (hereinafter referred to as institutions);

(2)

Any single cash transaction above RMB 200,000 yuan, including cash deposit, cash withdrawal, cash remittance, cash draft, cash promissory note payment.

(3)

Fund transfer above RMB200,000 yuan among individual bank settlement accounts, and between individual bank settlement account and corporate bank settlement account.

Article 8

The following payment transactions constitute suspicious payment transactions:

(1)

Fund being moved out in large quantities after coming into a financial institution in small amounts and in many batches within a short period of time or vice versa;

(2)

The frequency and amount of fund movement apparently not commensurate with the magnitude of an enterprise's business operation;

(3)

Direction of fund movement apparently not commensurate with the range of business operation of an enterprise;

(4)

Current fund movement apparently not commensurate with the features of an enterprise's business operation;

(5)

Regular occurrence of frequent fund movement apparently not commensurate with the nature and business operation of an enterprise;

(6)

Frequent fund movement within a short period of time between the same receiving party and the same paying party;

(7)

Sudden and frequent fund movement in and out of an account that has been dormant for a long time;

(8)

An enterprise frequently receiving individual remittance that is obviously unrelated to its range of business within a short period of time;

(9)

Cash deposit and withdrawal whose amount, frequency and use are apparently different from the normal fund movement of a customer;

(10)

The accumulated cash movement through an individual bank settlement account exceeding RMB one million yuan within a short period of time;

(11)

Frequent fund transfer within a short period of time to and from customers located in regions with serious drug-trafficking, smuggling and terrorist activities;

(12)

Accounts being opened and closed frequently, and experiencing large fund movement before being closed;

(13)

Breaking large-value fund movement up into small amounts deliberately in order to escape large-value payment transaction monitoring;

(14)

Other suspicious payment transaction defined by the People's Bank of China; or

(15)

Other suspicious payment transaction identified by a financial institution.

"A short period of time" referred to in thisArticle is 10 or less than 10 business days.

Article 9

When a depositor applies for opening a bank settlement account, the financial institution should examine the authenticity, completeness and legality of the documents submitted by the depositor.

Article 10

A financial institution shall create depositor's database to record information of holders of bank settlement accounts, including, in the case of a corporate customer, the title of the institution, name of legal representative or person-in-charge and name and number of his/her valid ID, supporting documents for opening the account, organization registration code, address, registered capital, range of business, major parties of fund movement, average size of daily fund movement of the account, and in the case of an individual customer, the name of the customer, name and number of his/her ID, address and other information.

Article 11

When a financial institution discovers from its customer any occurrence as listed inArticle 8 in the processing of payment and settlement business, it shall record, analyze the suspicious payment transaction, and fill in the Suspicious Payment Transaction Reporting Form before reporting the case.

Article 12

When a financial institution finds it necessary to further verify a case of suspicious payment transaction, it shall report to the People's Bank of China in a timely manner. When the People's Bank of China inquires about a case of suspicious payment transaction, the inquired financial institution shall find out the truth, reply promptly and record the case in the file.

Article 13

A financial institution shall keep the record of payment transactions in accordance with the regulations on bank accounting files.

Article 14

A financial institution shall formulate internal rules and operational procedures for payment transaction reporting in line with these Rules, and report the rules and procedures to the People's Bank of China.

A financial institution shall supervise and examine the implementation of these rules and procedures by its branch offices.

Article 15

Large-value fund transfer from accounts shall be reported by the financial institution through connecting its system with the payment transaction monitoring system.

Large-value cash transfer shall be reported by the financial institution through its business processing system or by writing.

Suspicious payment transaction shall be examined by the financial institution at the counter and reported in writing or other forms.

Article 16

When a financial institution processes a large-value fund transfer, it shall report to the head office of the People's Bank of China within the next business day after the day of the transaction's occurrence.

When a financial institution processes a large-value cash transfer, the financial institution shall report within the next business day after the day of the transaction's occurrence to the local branch office of the People's Bank of China, who shall in turn report to head office of the People's Bank of China.

Article 17

When an operational office of a policy bank, a wholly state-owned commercial bank, or a joint-stock commercial bank discovers a suspicious payment transaction, it shall fill in the Suspicious Payment Transaction Reporting Form and report to the tier-one branch of the bank, who shall report, within the next business day after receiving the Form, to the regional branch, operations office and provincial capital sub-branch of the People's Bank of China, and at the same time report to its superior branch.

When an operational office of a city commercial bank, a rural commercial bank, a rural or urban credit cooperative or its union, a wholly foreign-funded bank, a Chinese-foreign equity joint bank or a foreign bank's branch discovers a suspicious payment transaction, it shall fill in a Suspicious Payment Transaction Reporting Form and report to the local branch office, operations office, provincial capital sub-branch or prefecture sub-branch of the People's Bank of China. When a prefecture sub-branch of the People's Bank of China receives such a report, it shall report, within the next business day after receipt, to the branch, operations office or provincial capital sub-branch of the People's Bank of China.

Article 18

When an operational office of a financial institution finds, after analyzing a case of RMB payment transaction, the need for immediate criminal investigation against the suspect, it shall report to the local public security authority immediately and its superior branch at the same time.

Article 19

Branches, operation offices and provincial capital sub-branches of the People's Bank of China shall analyze the Suspicious Payment Transaction Reporting Forms submitted by financial institutions. When it is necessary for the reporting financial institution to provide additional material or further explanation, the said financial institution shall be informed immediately.

Article 20

Each branch, operation office and provincial capital sub-branch of the People's Bank of China shall make a weekly summary of the Suspicious Payment Transaction Reporting Forms submitted by financial institutions and report to the head office of the People's Bank of China on the first business day of every week. The payment transaction shall be reported to the head office of the People's Bank of China immediately after its discovery if the case is serious.

Article 21

The People's Bank of China and financial institutions shall not disclose to any institution or individual information about suspicious payment transactions, unless otherwise stipulated by laws.

Article 22

When a financial institution fails to examine the document submitted for opening accounts in accordance with relevant regulations and opens a settlement account for an individual, the People's Bank of China shall issue a warning and concurrently impose on it a fine between RMB1,000 yuan and RMB5,000 yuan. In a serious case, its senior executives directly responsible for such misconduct shall be banned from taking any senior position in the financial industry.

Article 23

In the case of any of the following misconduct by a financial institution, the People's Bank of China shall issue a warning and order the financial institution to take remedial action within a specified period of time, and if the financial institution fails to do so within the specified time limit, a fine up to RMB30,000 yuan may be imposed.

(1)

Opening account without examining the submitted materials according to relevant regulations that leads to the opening of a falsified institutional bank settlement account;

(2)

Failing to create depositor's databank or having incomplete depositor's information;

(3)

Failing to keep customer transactions record as stipulated;

(4)

Failing to examine and report payment transactions in accordance with these Rules;

(5)

Failing to report any known suspicious payment transaction or a suspicious payment transaction that should have been reported;

(6)

Disclosing suspicious payment transaction information in violation ofArticle 21 .

Article 24

Disciplinary penalty shall be imposed on the staff of a financial institution who is/are involved in falsifying account-opening materials to open bank settlement account(s) for individual(s) and facilitate money-laundering activities; when the misconduct constitutes a violation of the criminal law, the case shall be transferred to judiciary authorities.

Article 25

When a financial institution seriously violates these Rules, the People's Bank of China shall cease its approval for the institution to open basic deposit account, suspend or terminate part or all of its payment and settlement business and ban the senior executives directly responsible for such violations from taking any senior management position in the industry.

Article 26

Staff of the People's Bank of China shall be imposed an administrative penalty in accordance with laws for any violation ofArticle 21 of these Rules.

Article 27

When "above", "between" and "up to" are used to indicate a threshold number, a floor or a ceiling, the number that ensues any of them is also included.

Article 28

These Rules shall enter into force as of March 1, 2003.

  The People's Bank of China 2003-01-03  


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