New rules! Personal deposit and withdrawal of cash more than 50,000, to register! What does it have to do with ordinary people? Just now, the central bank responded

From 1 March 2022, the Administrative Measures for Customer Due Diligence and Customer Identity Information and Transaction Record Preservation of Financial Institutions issued by the Central Bank of China and other three departments will be formally implemented.

The Measures stipulate that commercial banks, rural cooperative banks, rural credit cooperatives, village and township banks and other financial institutions that handle cash deposits and withdrawals of more than RMB 50,000 yuan or the equivalent of more than 10,000 U.S. dollars in foreign currency for natural person customers shall identify and verify the identity of the customers, understand and register the source or use of funds.

Many netizens are concerned about why the central bank issued such regulations, and how much does it have to do with ordinary people?

According to CCTV Finance reported on the evening of February 9, the central bank said that the relevant regulations on personal cash access will not affect the normal cash deposit and withdrawal business of residents, and the convenience of residents' access to cash will not be affected.

The central bank responded:

It will not affect the normal cash deposit and withdrawal business of individuals

According to CCTV Finance and Economics, the responsible person of the relevant department of the People's Bank of China interpreted the provisions on personal cash deposit and withdrawal in Article 10 of the Measures for the Administration of Customer Due Diligence and Customer Identity Information and Transaction Records of Financial Institutions (Chinese Order [2022] No. 1 of the China Civil Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission of the People's Bank of China and the Securities Regulatory Commission [2022] No. 1, hereinafter referred to as Order No. 1):

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.

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.

Anti-money laundering efforts have escalated

Anti-money laundering has been a priority in the financial industry in recent years.

In fact, as early as June 2020, the central bank began a pilot project of large cash registration in some provinces and cities. According to the Notice on Carrying Out Large Cash Management Pilots issued by the Chinese Min min bank, it was decided to carry out large cash management work on a pilot basis in Hebei Province, Zhejiang Province and Shenzhen City from July 1, 2020, with a pilot period of 2 years.

After the start of the pilot, the starting point of the management amount of public accounts in all localities is 500,000 yuan, and the starting point of the management amount of private accounts is 100,000 yuan in Hebei Province, 300,000 yuan in Zhejiang Province, and 200,000 yuan in Shenzhen City. As long as the cash withdrawn and deposited above the starting amount at the pilot site needs to be registered at the time of business.

According to China News Finance, Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of Zhonglian Finance, said that cash has the characteristics of anonymity and untraceability, and large amounts of cash are often used to launder money, evade taxes and other illegal acts, endangering the national economic and financial order. Especially in today's environment where non-cash payment methods are very convenient, the proportion of cash use is declining, and the use of large amounts of cash by ordinary savers has become relatively rare.

Dong Ximiao said that therefore, the three departments have issued new regulations to further supplement and improve the relevant requirements for customer due diligence with reference to international standards, which will help improve the anti-money laundering supervision system, combat illegal cash use needs, improve the level of anti-money laundering work, reduce money laundering and other criminal acts, and maintain financial security.

Expert: It has little impact on the average customer

Will this bring inconvenience to ordinary savers?

Dong Ximiao believes that the new measures have little impact on ordinary customers, first of all, there are really not many cases of personal access to 50,000 yuan in cash, and diversified non-cash payment methods such as mobile payment and digital yuan in the pilot can already meet people's daily living needs, and there is no need to use cash. Secondly, even if it is necessary to deposit and withdraw more than 50,000 yuan of cash, at present, it is only necessary to fill out a large cash business form, the withdrawal should be checked for purpose, the deposit should be checked, and no certification materials are required, which has little impact on the convenience of deposit and withdrawal.

According to a previous report by Changsha Evening News, a bank official said that the new regulations do not limit the amount of depositors' deposits and withdrawals, but when the amount of cash deposited and withdrawn exceeds 50,000 yuan or the equivalent amount of foreign exchange, a procedure needs to be added is to fill in their own source of funds or the use of funds. "As long as it is a legitimate source and purpose, and the procedures are registered according to the regulations, it is also possible to access 100,000 or 500,000 yuan at a time, and citizens and friends do not have to worry at all."

"Be bright and upright, if you walk straight and straight, you are not afraid of the regulations, as long as you fill it out clearly." "Don't do bad things and have nothing to worry about, understand the good intentions of the bank." "Prevent money laundering by criminals and support this decision." Many netizens also expressed support for the new regulations.

(Source: Daily Economic News Editor: Lu Yanli)