The People's Bank of China issues its first anti-money laundering report

The People's Bank of China released "2004 China Anti-money Laundering Report" on Caijing Magazine on July 11. It is the first report of this kind promulgated by the People's Bank of China. Compared with the anti-money laundering report released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange in 2003, the individual large-denomination foreign exchanges that have flowed into China's mainland are 3956 million US dollars, increasing by nearly 1/3 over 2003. Some insiders say within these foreign exchanges that have flowed into China, there is some arbitrage idle money speculating on the RMB revaluation they expect, as well as some illegal funds on money laundering transactions in China. In the light of this, supervision has been tightened in the country.

"2004 China Anti-money Laundering Report" is the first report of this kind issued by the People's Bank of China after it established China Anti-money Laundering Supervising & Analyzing Center. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange used to be responsible for this mission. The joining of the central bank reflects the increasing importance that the Chinese government has attached to the efforts on anti-money laundering.

According to the report, last year the large-value foreign exchange that has been taken into China¡¯s mainland by individuals reached 3.956 billion US dollars, and 964 million US dollars has flowed out. The net in-flow amount is 2.992 billion US dollars. The in-flowing amount is over three times the out-flowing amount. The main sources and destinations of cross-border large-value foreign exchange transactions are the United States, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), China¡¯s Taiwan, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK).

According to some specific statistics, 1.406 billion US dollars flowed from the U.S. into the Chinese mainland in 2004, accounting for 35.53% of the total influx. The US is the largest source of capital into the Chinese mainland, followed by Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan, Japan and ROK. The largest capital outflow takes place in Hong Kong, accounting for 49.95%, followed by the United States, China¡¯s Taiwan , ROK, Japan and Singapore.

By the end of 2004, the People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange have cooperated with the public security department to break down 50 cases of money laundering, involving RMB 570 million Yuan and 447 million US dollars.

By People's Daily Online