State broadcaster China Central Television is accusing the Bank of China, one of the big four state-owned commercial banks, of money laundering.

CCTV says Bank of China has played an active role in helping people move money abroad as overseas investment and emigration from China increase every year.

Current restrictions set by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange only allow an individual in China to transfer 50 thousand yuan into foreign accounts each year.

But CCTV says that many foreign banks assist BOC to bypass the restriction.

One consultant from an Australian Bank cited by CCTV says that BOC is regarded as the safest underground bank.

"The reason why we cooperate with BOC is that it has a significant meaning for the Australian immigrant investor programs. The money for immigration is very safe. It is transferred in a grey way. The process is equal to that of underground banking. The biggest business of the BOC is its overseas business. They own huge amounts of RMB in china as well as foreign currency abroad. So only BOC has such big scale."

CCTV accuses BOC of "money laundering" via its shadowy money-transferring scheme called You Huitong, which helps wealthy Chinese send an unlimited amount of funds beyond the borders after they apply for immigrant investor programs.

A customer service manager at BOC's Guangdong branch explained that they send customers' money out of the country to their branches overseas, leaving them to exchange it for foreign currency.

The manager said it is more like cross-border yuan settlement, which goes around the restrictions of SAFE.

But experts said the settlement is limited to enterprises, not individuals.

The Director of Finance Research Center at Beijing Normal University, Zhong Wei, says avoiding financial regulations is harmful.

"If the Bank of china issues fake certificates on the source of funds, knowing the money is not legitimate, and actively works with migration agents to disguise the origin of the money, that's collaborative crime."

CCTV said one sub-branch of the BOC in Guangdong has sent as much as six billion yuan ($970 million) overseas so far this year.

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