The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) on Saturday denied online rumors that the foreign exchange regulator would roll out a series of new rules to tighten individual purchase of foreign exchange reserves starting from Saturday, CCTV News reported.
The newly revised rules regarding the block trading of financial institutions management and non-resident financial account information in tax matters - which were put into application on Saturday - were unveiled by the People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Taxation.
This did not involve policy adjustment to personal foreign exchange reserve management, the report said, citing a SAFE official close to the matter.
The legal and true individual use of foreign exchange reserves will not be affected, and the SAFE has not introduced new regulations on individual foreign exchange reserves' business, according to the SAFE official.
Online rumors circulated recently that starting from Saturday, China's foreign exchange reserve regulator will introduce a new version of the application form for individual purchase of foreign exchange reserves. SAFE also denied that there is no new version of the application form, the CCTV report said.
SAFE manages domestic buyers' annual total purchase of foreign exchange reserves, allowing an annual $50,000 individual quota, which has remained unchanged after the regulator ramped up scrutiny of individual foreign currency purchases and enhanced punishments for illegal capital outflows at the end of 2016.
In a bid to fight money laundering and illegal transfer of assets, SAFE announced on June 4 that China's banks will be asked to report on a daily basis their bank card holders' withdrawals in overseas countries and regions starting from September 1, as well as any bank transactions exceeding 1,000 yuan ($146.8).
China's foreign exchange reserves stood at $3.05 trillion in May, up $24 billion from a month earlier.
