Central bank to replace police in fight against money laundering
( 2003-10-23 17:14) (Xinhua)
China's central bank, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), is likely to replace the Ministry of Public Security to organize the fight against money laundering, according to a new amendment draft of a major banking law.
The amendment draft of the Law on the PBOC was submitted Thursday to the fifth session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, for the second deliberation.
The amendment draft noted that the central bank will organize actions against money laundering across the country and coordinate relevant government departments - tasks formerly undertaken by the Ministry of Public Security.
The central bank will also guide banks and financial institutions to combat money laundering and supervise a specialized fund for the actions, the amendment draft added.
The PBOC updated its security department to include fighting money laundering as one of its main tasks on Sept. 29 this year.
The PBOC spokesman told Xinhua that the central bank will be right in place to dig out possible money laundering cases by monitoring huge flows of capital.
Three regulations against money laundering were issued by the central bank in January and became valid March 1.
The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) formed a special department against money laundering as well in March this year while the inspection department on money laundering crimes under the Ministry of Public Security was set up in April last year. All these departments will work together under the central bank.
SAFE uncovered a total of 12,000 cases of illegal operations in foreign currencies with more than 9 billion US dollars implicated last year. Seventy-eight underground banks were smashed and 519 law-violating people were arrested.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), 600 billion to 1.8 trillion US dollars is laundered in the world every year, equal to two to five percent of the global economy, and the amount increases by 100 billion US dollars annually.
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