By Wu Wang

On November 9, 2013, Chinese premier Li Keqiang signed and approved the revised Measures For Reporting of Statistics on International Balance of Payments, which will become effective as of January 1, 2014.

Compared to the measures previously in effect since January 1, 1996, the newly revised measures mainly have the following updates:

First, the coverage of statistics has been enlarged from “all transactions between the Chinese residents and the foreign residents” to additionally include “Chinese residents’ outbound financial assets or debts.”

Second, the range of entities required to report has been enlarged from “Chinese residents” to additionally include “the foreign residents dealing commercial transactions within China.”

Third, the registration and clearing institutions and custodian agencies have also been required to perform reporting duties;

Fourth, Chinese residents who own outbound financial assets or debts have been also required to perform the reporting duties;

Fifth, the banks, dealers, registration and clearing institutions and custodian agencies have been required to keep confidentiality over such specific data they obtained from the reporting entities in the process of performing their businesses.

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Sixth, the penalty clauses in the current measures have been replaced by the relevant penalty clauses under the Regulations on Administration of the PRC’s Foreign Exchange, pursuant to which if the Chinese residents or   foreign residents fail to perform the reporting duties thereunder, the foreign exchange authorities shall have the power to order the rectification, give a warning thereon, and/or impose a fine of not more than RMB 300,000 in the case of an institution or impose a fine of not more than RMB 50,000 in the case of an individual. 

Mr. Wu Wang is a Beijing-based senior associate with Global Law Office who specializes in merger & acquisition, private equity investment, venture capital investment, foreign direct investment, corporate financing, and corporate public offering and listing. (E-mail: wangwu@glo.com.cn)