All branches and forex management departments of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) in provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities; SAFE sub-branches in Shenzhen, Dalian, Qingdao, Xiamen, and Ningbo; and all designated Chinese forex banks:

In order to standardize the opening and use of domestic foreign exchange accounts by the overseas institutions, facilitate trade and investment and guard against financial risks, SAFE, according to related regulations on Exchange Control of the People's Republic of China, issues this circular on related problems as follows:

1. The overseas institutions as referred to in this circular include institutions legally registered and established overseas (including those registered and established in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan); the domestic banks as referred to include Chinese and foreign banks within the Chinese territory that are qualified to legally absorb public savings and handle settlement businesses at home and from overseas.

Domestic foreign exchange accounts as referred to in this circular do not include offshore accounts of the overseas institutions (accounts opened by overseas institutions at the offshore business departments of domestic banks that are qualified to handle offshore banking businesses).

2. The overseas institutions and domestic banks should open and use foreign exchange accounts, and handle foreign exchange collection and payment businesses according to the stipulations of this circular, and abide by related stipulations of the State laws and regulations.

3. Domestic banks shall examine the account information including legal registration certificates of overseas institutions when opening foreign exchange accounts for overseas institutions. If the account information is not in Chinese, corresponding Chinese translation is required. Except those for which SAFE has special stipulations, such opening of foreign exchange accounts by overseas institutions does not need to be approved by SAFE and its branches and sub-branches.

The names of foreign exchange accounts of overseas institutions shall be consistent with the names registered in their legal certificate documents overseas (or with corresponding Chinese translation).

4. Domestic banks shall add a unified NRA (NON-RESIDENT ACCOUNT) mark to the foreign exchange accounts opened by the overseas institutions, that is NRA+ foreign exchange account number, and shall automatically divide banking and non-banking institutions among the overseas institutions, in an effort to let the domestic receivable and payments sides and banks that have capital exchanges with such foreign exchange accounts accurately know that the foreign exchange accounts are opened by the overseas institutions.

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