The central bank is likely to expand the scope of its drive against money laundering by including sectors such as securities, insurance, real estate, legal services and lottery.

 

A People's Bank of China (PBOC) statement said on Friday: "(We) will strengthen anti-money laundering checks targeted at securities and insurance institutions."

 

The central bank will study the possibility of including some non-financial sectors such as legal services, real estate and lottery, too, into its anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing framework, PBOC Governor Zhou Xiaochuan told a 23-member inter-departmental meeting on anti-money laundering.

 

The country still needs to improve its anti-money laundering law that took effect from January 1 this year, he said.

 

In the next stage of the drive, the country will focus on revising articles on money laundering and terrorism financing in its Criminal Law to make them more practical and feasible, Zhou said.

 

Efforts will be made to improve efficiency in investigation, prosecution and ruling in cases involving money laundering and terrorism financing.

 

The possibility of setting up a bearer securities declaration system with the Customs will be studied, too, the central bank's statement said.

 

The central bank and the customs offices will set up a network to ensure relevant information are reported to each other.

 

It will coordinate and cooperate with financial information centers of other countries, too, and work jointly with them to set up a mechanism for preventing illegal cross-border capital flow, the statement said.

 

China has achieved "breakthroughs" in recent years in its anti-money laundering drive, Zhou said.

 

Apart from passing the anti-money laundering law, China has also issued rules on controlling terrorism financing by telling banks to report suspicious transactions to the authorities.

 

(China Daily November 10, 2007)