Recently, the topic of "personal access to cash exceeding 50,000 yuan needs to register the source of funds" has been on Weibo's hot search. On February 9, the responsible person of the relevant department and bureau of the Chinese Min min bank responded that the relevant regulations on personal cash deposit and withdrawal will not affect the normal cash deposit and withdrawal business of residents, and the convenience of residents' access to cash will not be affected.
"Statistically speaking, the current number of cash access businesses of more than 50,000 yuan in the mainland only accounts for about 2% of all cash access and withdrawal business, and the regulations generally have less impact on customers' cash business." The person said.
On January 26, the official website of Chinese Minmin Bank released a message showing that the "Administrative Measures for Customer Due Diligence and Customer Identity Information and Transaction Record Preservation of Financial Institutions" (hereinafter referred to as "Order No. 1"), jointly issued by the First Bank and the Two Associations, came into effect on March 1, 2022. Among them, the most concerned is that Order No. 1 stipulates that commercial banks, rural cooperative banks, rural credit cooperatives, village and township banks and other financial institutions that handle a single cash deposit and withdrawal of more than RMB 50,000 yuan or a foreign currency equivalent of more than US$10,000 for natural person customers shall identify and verify the identity of the customer, understand and register the source or use of funds.
In fact, as early as 2020, the central bank piloted large-scale cash management work in Shenzhen, Hebei and Zhejiang. Hebei personal deposits and withdrawals of more than 100,000 yuan, Shenzhen personal deposits and withdrawals of more than 200,000 yuan, Zhejiang personal deposits and withdrawals of more than 300,000 yuan to register. The pilot period is 2 years. The pilot has now been completed.
Regarding the impact of the implementation of Order No. 1, the above-mentioned person responded:
I. 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 that in 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 flashed his words for the use of money, and the relationship with the same man was different, and the man only looked at the old man from a distance, the situation was 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.
2. The implementation of the provisions by financial institutions will not affect the normal cash deposit and withdrawal business of residents, nor will the degree of business convenience be affected.
The access and withdrawal business of residents' legitimate income has always been strictly protected by law in the mainland, and "voluntary deposit" 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.
Third, personal information and customer privacy are protected by law.
"Confidentiality for depositors" is a basic principle established in the Commercial Bank Law, and financial institutions must keep personal information and customer privacy strictly confidential in the process of handling business. 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. For the leakage of personal information and customer privacy, banks and their staff shall bear legal responsibility, and if the circumstances are serious, they shall also bear criminal liability.
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.
Fourth, strengthening the management of cash deposit and withdrawal business is a requirement for financial institutions to fulfill their anti-money laundering obligations and comply with international standards for anti-money laundering.
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 regulatory objects are 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.
Text/Guangzhou Daily, Xinhua city reporter: Lin Xiaoli, intern Zeng Wentao
Edit: Shizuka
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