Notice of the People’s Bank of China on strengthening the management of payment and settlement and preventing new illegal crimes in telecommunication networks
Yinfa [2016] No.261
China People’s Bank Shanghai Headquarters, branches, business management departments, city center branches of provincial capitals, and Shenzhen center branch; China Development Bank, policy banks, state-owned commercial banks, joint-stock commercial banks and China Postal Savings Bank; China UnionPay Co., Ltd., China Payment and Clearing Association; All non-bank payment institutions:
In order to effectively prevent new types of illegal crimes in telecommunication networks and effectively protect people’s property safety and legitimate rights and interests, relevant matters concerning strengthening payment and settlement management are hereby notified as follows:
First, strengthen the management of real-name account system
(1) Comprehensively promote the classified management of individual accounts.
1. Personal bank settlement account. Since December 1, 2016, if a banking financial institution (hereinafter referred to as a bank) opens a bank settlement account for an individual, the same person can only open a Class I account in the same bank (taking a legal person as the unit, the same below), and has already opened a Class I account. If a new account is opened, a Class II account or a Class III account shall be opened. If a bank charges off-site handling fees for off-site deposit and withdrawal, transfer and other services within the bank, it shall be free within three months from the date of promulgation of this notice.
If an individual opens more than one Class I account in the same bank before November 30, 2016, the bank shall clean up the situation of a large number of accounts opened by the same depositor and ask the depositor to make an explanation to verify the rationality of his account opening. If it is impossible to verify the rationality of opening an account, the bank should guide depositors to cancel or merge their accounts, or take measures such as reducing the category of accounts, so that depositors can use the account classification mechanism to deposit funds reasonably and protect the safety of funds.
2. Personal payment account. Since December 1, 2016, if a non-bank payment institution (hereinafter referred to as the payment institution) opens a payment account for an individual, the same person can only open a Class III account in the same payment institution. The payment institution shall complete the clearing of existing payment accounts before November 30, 2016, contact the account holder to confirm the accounts that need to be kept, and reduce the category management or merge the remaining accounts; If the account holder fails to confirm the account within the specified time, the payment institution shall keep the account with high frequency of use and large amount, and can make changes according to its application later.
(2) Suspending the business of all accounts under the name of the account holder involved. Since January 1, 2017, if the bank account and payment account used by criminals to carry out new illegal crimes in the telecommunication network have been identified by the public security organs at or above the municipal level and included in the list of "accounts involved" in the risk event management platform for new illegal and criminal transactions in the telecommunication network, banks and payment institutions will suspend all business of the account.
Banks and payment institutions shall notify the account holder involved to re-verify his identity. If he fails to re-verify his identity with the bank or payment institution within 3 days, he shall suspend off-counter business for other bank accounts under the account holder’s name, and suspend all business for the payment account. After the bank and payment institution re-verify the identity of the account holder, they can resume other account businesses except the account involved; If the account holder confirms that the account has been opened under another person’s false name, he shall issue a statement to the bank and payment institution that the account has been opened under a false identity and agrees to cancel the account, and the bank and payment institution shall cancel the account.
(3) establishing a disciplinary mechanism for buying and selling bank accounts and payment accounts, and opening accounts under false names. Since January 1, 2017, banks and payment institutions have suspended the off-counter business of bank accounts and all the business of payment accounts for the units and individuals who have been identified by the public security organs at or above the municipal level with districts as renting, lending, selling or purchasing bank accounts (including bank cards, the same below) and related organizers, and the units and individuals who have opened bank accounts or payment accounts under the guise of other people’s identities or fictitious agency relationships for three years. The People’s Bank of China will transfer the information of the above-mentioned units and individuals to the basic database of financial credit information and announce it to the public.
(four) to strengthen the punishment of false accounts. When a bank handles the account opening business, it finds that an individual has opened an account by using someone else’s identity, and it shall report the case to the public security organ in time and hand over the identity certificate that has been used fraudulently to the public security organ.
(5) Establish a prudent verification mechanism for unit account opening. Banks and payment institutions are not allowed to open accounts for units that are listed in the "list of serious illegal and untrustworthy enterprises" by the national enterprise credit information publicity system and verified by banks and payment institutions that the registered address of the unit does not exist or that the business premises are fictitious. Banks and payment institutions should check whether the enterprise is a serious illegal enterprise at least quarterly. If the situation is true, they should suspend their business within 3 months and gradually clean up.
Banks and payment institutions should strengthen the verification of the unit’s willingness to open an account if there are abnormal situations such as the legal representative or responsible person’s unclear business scale and business background of the unit, and the registered place and business place are in different places. The bank shall sign the face-to-face with the legal representative or responsible person and keep the video and audio materials, etc. In principle, the non-counter business will not be opened at the initial stage of account opening, and it will be cautiously opened after further understanding. The payment institution shall keep the video and audio materials when the legal representative or person in charge of the unit opens an account.
When a payment institution opens a payment account as a unit, it shall refer to Article 17, Article 24 and Article 26 of the Measures for the Administration of RMB Bank Settlement Accounts (promulgated by Order No.5 of the People’s Bank of China [2003]), require the unit to provide relevant supporting documents, and independently or entrust a cooperative institution to verify the identity of customers face to face, or conduct multiple cross-verification on the basic information of the unit through at least three legal and safe external channels in a non-face-to-face manner. For the unit that has opened a payment account before the date of issuance of this notice, the payment institution shall verify its identity according to the above requirements before the end of June 2017, and may not open a new payment account for it before the verification is completed; If the verification is not completed within the time limit, the payment account will only accept and not pay. After the payment institution completes the verification, it will report the relevant information to the branch of the People’s Bank of China where the legal person is located.
Payment institutions should strengthen the monitoring of capital transactions and continuous customer management in using personal payment accounts to carry out business activities.
(six) to strengthen the audit of abnormal account opening behavior. In any of the following circumstances, banks and payment institutions have the right to refuse to open an account:
1. There are doubts about the identity information of the units and individuals, and the units and individuals refuse to show their auxiliary certificates.
2. Units and individuals organize others to open accounts at the same time or in batches.
3. There are obvious reasons to suspect that opening an account is engaged in illegal and criminal activities.
Banks and payment institutions should strengthen the monitoring of account trading activities. For accounts with no transaction records within 6 months from the date of opening an account, banks should suspend their off-counter business, payment institutions should suspend all their business, and banks and payment institutions can resume their business after re-verifying their identities with units and individuals.
(seven) strictly contact the corresponding relationship between the telephone number and the ID number. Banks and payment institutions shall establish a one-to-one correspondence between the contact telephone number and the number of personal identity documents, investigate and clean up the situation that many people use the same contact telephone number to open and use accounts, and contact relevant parties for confirmation. For adults to represent minors or the elderly to open an account and reserve their own contact telephone number, the relevant parties can keep it unchanged after issuing instructions; If the unit opens an account in batches and reserves the contact telephone number of financial personnel, it shall be changed to the contact telephone number of the account owner himself; If the rationality cannot be proved, the non-counter business shall be suspended in the relevant bank account, and all business shall be suspended in the payment account.
Second, strengthen transfer management
(8) Increase transfer methods and adjust transfer time. Since December 1, 2016, banks and payment institutions shall implement the following provisions when providing transfer services:
1. Provide depositors with a variety of transfer methods, such as real-time account arrival, ordinary account arrival and next-day account arrival, and depositors can only handle business after selecting them.
2. In addition to transferring money to my peer account, if an individual transfers money through self-service teller machines (including other self-service devices with deposit and withdrawal functions, the same below), the issuing bank will handle the fund transfer after 24 hours of acceptance. Within 24 hours after the issuing bank accepts the transfer, the individual may apply to the issuing bank for cancellation of the transfer. The accepting bank shall clearly indicate the processing time and revocable provisions of the transfer business in the acceptance result interface.
3. If the bank handles the transfer business for individuals through self-service teller machines, it shall add Chinese voice prompts, and set anti-fraud reminders through words, signs, pop-ups and so on; The non-Chinese prompt interface shall provide Chinese prompts for core key fields such as fund transfer. If it is impossible to prompt, no transfer shall be provided.
(9) Strengthen the management of off-counter bank transfers. Since December 1, 2016, when a bank opens a non-counter transfer business for depositors, it shall sign an agreement with depositors to stipulate the daily cumulative limit, the number of transactions and the annual cumulative limit for the transfer of non-counter channels to different bank accounts and payment accounts. If the limit and the number of transactions are exceeded, it shall be handled at the bank counter.
In addition to transferring money to my peers’ accounts, banks handle off-counter transfer business for individuals. If the accumulated amount in a single day exceeds 50,000 yuan, safe and reliable payment instruction verification methods such as digital certificates or electronic signatures shall be adopted. If the single-day cumulative amount of non-counter transfer in a bank account of a unit or individual exceeds 1 million yuan and 300,000 yuan respectively, the bank shall remind the unit or individual of the large transaction before the transfer can be made.
(ten) to strengthen the management of payment account transfer. Since December 1, 2016, when a payment institution opens a payment account for a unit or individual, it shall sign an agreement with the unit or individual to stipulate the daily cumulative transfer limit and the number of transactions between the payment account and the payment account and between the payment account and the bank account. If it exceeds the limit and the number of transactions, it shall not handle the transfer business again.
(eleven) to strengthen the transaction background investigation. If banks and payment institutions find that there are a large number of transfer-in and transfer-out transactions in their accounts, they should investigate the transaction background of units or individuals in accordance with the principle of "know your customers". If any abnormality is found, relevant services provided to units and individuals shall be adjusted according to the principle of prudence.
(twelve) to strengthen the fund settlement management of special merchants. When banks and payment institutions provide T+0 fund settlement services for special merchants, they shall strengthen transaction monitoring and risk management for special merchants, and shall not provide T+0 fund settlement services for special merchants who have been online for less than 90 days or have been trading normally for less than 30 days.
Third, strengthen the management of bank card business
(thirteen) strictly review the qualifications of special merchants and standardize the management of accepting terminals. No unit or individual may buy or sell POS machines (including MPOS), credit card readers and other acceptance terminals online. Banks and payment institutions shall conduct on-site inspections on all entity special merchants, and check the use locations of their acceptance terminals one by one. The business function will be stopped for accepting terminals that are illegally transferred and cannot confirm the actual place of use. Banks and payment institutions shall form inspection reports for future reference before November 30, 2016.
(fourteen) to establish and improve the information management system and blacklist management mechanism of special merchants. China Payment and Clearing Association and bank card clearing institutions shall establish and improve the information management system of special merchants, and organize banks and payment institutions to record the basic information of special merchants, the start and termination of services, and the compliance risk status in detail. Banks and payment institutions shall prudently provide services to the same special merchants or special merchants controlled by the same person who repeatedly change service institutions and other abnormal situations.
China Payment and Clearing Association and bank card clearing institution shall establish and improve the blacklist management mechanism of special merchants, and blacklist the special merchants whose services have been terminated by banks and payment institutions due to major violations, their legal representatives or responsible persons, special merchants and related individuals identified by public security organs as facilitating the transfer of illegal and criminal activities, and units and individuals with trading accounts identified by public security organs. China Payment and Clearing Association shall transfer the blacklist information to the basic database of financial credit information. Banks and payment institutions shall not expand the blacklisted units and units with relevant individuals as legal representatives or responsible persons into special merchants; If it has been expanded into a special merchant, it shall be retired within 10 days from the date when the special merchant is blacklisted.
Fourth, strengthen the monitoring of suspicious transactions
(fifteen) to ensure that the transaction information is true, complete and traceable. When a payment institution cooperates with a bank to carry out bank account payment or collection business, it shall strictly implement the Administrative Measures for Bank Card Receipt Business (promulgated by Order No.9 [2013] of the People’s Bank of China) and the Administrative Measures for Online Payment Business of Non-bank Payment Institutions (promulgated by Announcement No.43 [2015] of the People’s Bank of China) to ensure the authenticity, integrity and traceability of transaction information and the consistency in the whole payment process. Banks and payment institutions shall complete the system transformation in accordance with the technical standards of financial industry related to online payment messages before March 31, 2017. If the transformation is not completed within the time limit, the relevant business shall be suspended.
(16) Strengthen account monitoring. Banks and payment institutions shall strengthen the monitoring of bank accounts and payment accounts, and establish and improve the monitoring model of suspicious transactions. Accounts and their fund transfers with the characteristics of suspicious transactions such as centralized transfer to decentralized transfer (see Annex 1 for details) shall be included in suspicious transactions.
For accounts listed in suspicious transactions, banks and payment institutions shall verify the transactions with relevant units or individuals; If the bank and payment institution still consider the account suspicious after verification, the bank shall suspend the off-counter business of the account, and the payment institution shall suspend all business of the account, and submit suspicious transaction reports or key suspicious transaction reports in accordance with the regulations; Anyone suspected of violating the law or committing a crime shall report to the local public security organ in time.
(seventeen) to strengthen the monitoring of suspicious transactions in payment and settlement. China Payment and Clearing Association and bank card clearing institutions shall, according to the suspicious transactions provided by public security organs, banks and payment institutions, construct a suspicious transaction monitoring model and publish it to banks and payment institutions.
Five, improve the emergency stop payment and quick freezing mechanism.
(eighteen) straighten out the working mechanism, access to the new illegal and criminal transaction risk event management platform of telecommunication network on schedule. Before November 30, 2016, the payment institution shall straighten out the workflow of assisting the competent authority to inquire, stop payment, freeze and deduct; Realize the query of account information and transaction flow, as well as account stop payment, freezing and deduction; Designate a special person to be responsible for assisting in the inquiry, payment suspension, freezing and deduction, and shall not shirk or delay. Banks and payment institutions engaged in online payment shall, in accordance with the relevant requirements, complete the development and transformation of the core system of their own units on time, and all of them will be connected to the new risk event management platform of illegal and criminal transactions in the telecommunication network before the end of 2016.
Six, increase the crackdown on unlicensed institutions.
(nineteen) to dispose of unlicensed institutions according to law. Branches of the People’s Bank of China shall make full use of the special risk rectification mechanism of payment institutions, strengthen cooperation with local governments, industrial and commercial departments, and public security organs, promptly issue administrative confirmation opinions on illegal fund payment and settlement, intensify the crackdown on unlicensed institutions, and dispose of a number of unlicensed operating institutions as soon as possible according to law. The Shanghai headquarters of the People’s Bank of China, all branches, business management departments, and city center branches of provincial capitals shall fill in the Work Schedule for Special Renovation of Unlicensed Payment Business on a monthly basis (see Annex 2) and report the work progress in their respective jurisdictions to the Head Office.
Seven, the establishment of accountability mechanism.
(twenty) strict punishment, the implementation of accountability. Branches, banks and payment institutions of the People’s Bank of China shall perform their duties and ensure that the work of cracking down on new types of illegal crimes in telecommunications networks has achieved practical results.
Where a new type of illegal and criminal case of telecommunication network occurs, the implementation of the responsibilities of banks and payment institutions should be investigated. Banks and payment institutions that violate the relevant systems and the provisions of this notice shall be punished in accordance with the relevant provisions; If the circumstances are serious, the People’s Bank of China shall be punished according to the provisions of Article 46 of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the People’s Bank of China, and may take regulatory measures to suspend the opening of new accounts and handle payment business for one month to six months.
Where the supervision responsibility of the branches of the People’s Bank of China is not implemented, resulting in the failure of banks and payment institutions within their jurisdiction to perform their duties effectively, and the public has suffered serious financial losses in the new illegal and criminal activities of telecommunications networks, resulting in adverse social impacts, the branches of the People’s Bank of China should be held accountable.
Branches of the People’s Bank of China, banks, payment institutions, China Payment and Clearing Association and bank card clearing institutions shall report the implementation of this notice to the head office of the People’s Bank of China and fill in relevant statistical tables (see Annex 3 for specific submission methods and contents).
The Shanghai Headquarters of the People’s Bank of China, branches, business management departments, provincial capital city sub-branches and Shenzhen city sub-branches are requested to forward this notice to city commercial banks, rural commercial banks, rural cooperative banks, village banks, urban credit cooperatives, rural credit cooperatives and foreign banks within their respective jurisdictions in a timely manner.
All units in the implementation of any problems, please report to the people’s bank in a timely manner.
People’s Bank of China
September 30, 2016