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 this Article 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 in
Article 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
sino-foreign joint-equity 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 22 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 23 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 24 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 of Article Twenty-One.
Article 25 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 26 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 27 Staff of
the People's Bank of China shall be imposed an administrative penalty in
accordance with laws for any violation of Article 21 of these Rules.
Article 28 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.
