China Suffered Personal Forex System Outage Yesterday
Liao Shumin
DATE:  Nov 15 2018
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
China Suffered Personal Forex System Outage Yesterday China Suffered Personal Forex System Outage Yesterday

(Yicai Global) Nov. 15 -- China's personal foreign exchange service system broke down at midday yesterday, according to the country's sectoral regulator.

Authorities quickly launched an emergency plan with banks instructed to handle forex business for individuals, according to a statement from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange on its Weibo account. Normal service was restored by 3.40 p.m. the same day.

"I went to the bank to exchange Hong Kong dollars at 2:30 this afternoon but was unable to do so," a Shanghai resident told state-backed The Paper. "Bank staff told me that the system had been down for a while."

The personal foreign exchange business monitoring system currently used in China was put into operation at the beginning of 2016. Previously, SAFE replaced the original personal foreign exchange settlement and management information system with the personal foreign exchange business monitoring system to regulate and facilitate the operation of banking and individual foreign exchange business and improve the classified supervision of individual foreign exchange transactions.

Banks certified for foreign exchange settlement and sales should handle personal foreign exchange businesses such as personal foreign exchange settlement and purchases through the personal foreign exchange business monitoring system and submit relevant business data and information in a timely, accurate and complete manner as required.

Banks need to connect with the SAFE system for personal foreign exchange businesses such as foreign exchange purchases or settlement, no matter where these businesses are handled, at bank counters, on mobile phones or through self-service terminals.

"Banks need to determine an individuals' foreign exchange purchase qualifications, such as whether the transaction is inside annual limits, or whether the individual is on a watchlist" an insider at a state-owned commercial lender told Yicai Global.

Follow Yicai Global on
Keywords:   State Administration of Foreign Exchange,Personal Foreign Exchange Monitoring System