Central Bank: The relevant regulations on personal cash deposit and withdrawal will not affect the normal cash deposit and withdrawal business of residents

From March 1, the personal cash access rules will be changed.

According to Article 10 of the Measures for the Administration of Customer Due Diligence and Preservation of Customer Identity Information and Transaction Records of Financial Institutions (Order No. 1 [2022] of the China Chinese Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission, jointly issued by the Chinese Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission, commercial banks, rural cooperative banks, rural credit cooperatives, village and township banks and other financial institutions handle cash deposit and withdrawal business of more than RMB 50,000 yuan or foreign currency equivalent to more than 10,000 US dollars for natural person customers, The identity of the customer shall be identified and verified, and the source or use of the funds shall be understood and registered.

Focusing on related issues, the person in charge of the relevant departments and bureaus of the People's Bank of China said that the relevant regulations on personal cash deposit and withdrawal are aimed at preventing and curbing illegal and criminal activities such as money laundering and protecting the safety and interests of the people's funds, at the same time, the relevant regulations will not affect the normal cash deposit and withdrawal business of residents, and the convenience of residents' access to cash will not be affected.

Reporter: What is the main purpose of implementing Order No. 1?

Responsible persons of relevant departments and bureaus of the People's Bank of China: The main purpose of implementing Order No. 1 is to prevent and curb illegal and criminal activities such as money laundering and protect the safety and interests of the people's funds.

In recent years, illegal and criminal activities such as telecommunications fraud, illegal fund-raising, illegal pyramid schemes, cross-border gambling, and underground money banks have been rampant, seriously endangering the interests of the people. In 2021 alone, public security organs investigated more than 370,000 cases of telecommunications fraud, with victims all over the country. Among them, a prominent feature is that criminals use cash to be anonymous and difficult to trace, and prefer to use cash for trading activities. Financial institutions appropriately strengthen the management of cash deposit and withdrawal activities in accordance with the law, which is conducive to preventing illegal and criminal activities and protecting the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people.

Judging from practical experience, in recent years, mainland financial institutions have continuously strengthened the risk management of money laundering, discovered many situations of suspected illegal and criminal activities, and protected the safety of the people's funds.

For example, in September 2021, an elderly couple went to a bank in Zhengzhou to withdraw 95,000 yuan, when the bank staff asked about the purpose of the withdrawal, the old man told him to buy health care products, because he was worried that the old man was deceived, the staff repeatedly persuaded the old man to beware of being deceived. During the period, because the grandfather did not bring an ID card and could not take a large amount of cash, the uncle said that there were people from the health product company outside who sent him over to get money, and insisted that the health product company personnel send him home to get the ID card. In the process of the uncle going home to get his ID card, the staff kept persuading and comforting the old lady and contacting the police. In the end, after the dissuasion of the police and staff, the economic loss of 95,000 yuan was recovered for the elderly.

Another example is september 2018, an old man in his 30s accompanied by a man in his 30s asked to withdraw 100,000 yuan from a bank in Wuhan, in the process of withdrawal, the old man for the use of money flashed his words, for the relationship between the same man is different, and the man only looks at the old man from a distance, the situation is more abnormal. In the spirit of being responsible for customers, the bank staff advised the elderly to contact their families to confirm the withdrawal of money, and at the same time call the police to deal with it. Before the police arrived, the man left the bank. Finally, I learned that the man was a WeChat friend added to the old man's internet, and introduced the so-called "high-interest" financial business. In this case, the bank's understanding of the use of funds avoided financial losses for the elderly.

Reporter: Will the implementation of this regulation by financial institutions affect the normal cash deposit and withdrawal business of residents, and will the convenience of business be affected?

Responsible persons of relevant departments and bureaus of the People's Bank of China: The deposit and withdrawal business of residents' legitimate income has always been strictly protected by law in the mainland, and "voluntary deposits" and "freedom of withdrawal" are clearly stipulated in the Commercial Bank Law, which is also the basic principle that financial institutions should follow in handling cash deposit and withdrawal business. The implementation of the relevant provisions of Order No. 1 by financial institutions will not affect the normal cash deposit and withdrawal business of individuals. In recent years, in order to prevent telecommunications fraud, money laundering and other illegal and criminal activities, many financial institutions have proceeded from the customer-centric concept and made necessary understanding and prompts on the source and use of funds when handling large-amount cash access and withdrawal business, and have formed some experience practices. When the financial management department studied and drafted Order No. 1, it summarized and unified the relevant practices of financial institutions, which is also conducive to maintaining the consistency of the business handling norms of various financial institutions.

Under normal circumstances, financial institutions do not need customers to fill in information or provide supporting materials, financial institutions can directly handle cash access business for customers and register relevant information after a simple inquiry and understanding, and only when they find that the transaction is obviously abnormal and there are reasonable reasons to suspect that the transaction is suspected of money laundering and other illegal and criminal activities, they will further understand the situation from the customer.

In the next step, the People's Bank of China will guide financial institutions to formulate implementation rules, while conscientiously fulfilling anti-money laundering obligations, it is necessary to strictly implement the minimum and necessary principles to understand the registered customer information, and must not increase the burden on customers. Especially for groups that use more cash such as the elderly, financial institutions should take the initiative to provide more friendly and convenient services. At the same time, we must also pay attention to strengthening the prevention of fraud and the publicity of financial knowledge.

Reporter: How to ensure that customers' personal information and privacy are not violated?

Responsible persons of relevant departments and bureaus of the People's Bank of China: "Keeping secrets for depositors" is a basic principle established in the Commercial Bank Law, and financial institutions must keep strictly confidential the personal information and customer privacy obtained in the course of business handling. In addition to complying with the requirements of general laws and regulations such as the Civil Code and the Personal Information Protection Law, financial institutions also need to establish a strict and complete customer information confidentiality system in accordance with the requirements of financial regulatory laws such as the Commercial Bank Law and the Anti-Money Laundering Law. Banks and their staff shall bear legal responsibility for the leakage of personal information and customer privacy, and criminal liability for serious circumstances.

The People's Bank of China will continue to pay attention to and guide financial institutions to strictly implement relevant regulations, grasp the balance between risk prevention and service optimization, and strictly protect citizens' personal information and privacy.

Reporter: From the perspective of international anti-money laundering regulations, what are the requirements for the management of cash access and withdrawal business?

Responsible person of the relevant department and bureau of the People's Bank of China: Order No. 1 is a departmental regulation formulated in accordance with the Anti-Money Laundering Law, the Anti-Terrorism Law and other laws and regulations, in order to prevent and curb money laundering and terrorist financing activities, and to regulate the due diligence of customers of financial institutions, customer identity information and transaction record preservation, and its direct target is financial institutions.

The relevant provisions of Order No. 1 on personal cash deposit and withdrawal operations comply with the requirements of the current international standards against money laundering and are internationally accepted practices for the prevention of money laundering activities. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) International Standards on Anti-Money Laundering explicitly require that financial institutions conduct due diligence on cash transactions exceeding a certain amount, and that the mainland, as its member, implement the requirements of the international standards against money laundering. At present, major countries around the world have similar requirements for cash transactions of more than a certain amount.

From a statistical point of view, at present, the number of cash deposit and withdrawal business of more than 50,000 yuan in the mainland only accounts for about 2% of the total cash access business, and the provisions of Article 10 of Order No. 1 generally have less impact on customers' cash business.

Source: Financial Times