The General Office of the People's Bank of China ("PBC") has recently released the Circular on Issuing the Key Tasks on Transparency of Government Affairs in 2018 (the "Circular").
The Circular outlines measures in seven aspects, including "strengthening the release and interpretation of policies", "working effectively on monitoring and responding to public concerns" and "voluntarily disclosing information to a larger extent". The Circular stipulates that it is of necessity to publish authoritative information and to warn of risks in time, to respond to public concerns with respect to financial statistics, issuance of commemorative coins, internet finance, building of the payment system, and protection of financial product consumers. It is required to strictly implement the time limits for publication of authoritative information within a maximum of five hours and the holding of a press conference within 24 hours from the occurrence of an extremely significant or a major emergency. Moreover, the Circular notes that, authorities must take the initiative to publish any rules and normative documents relating to the public duty performance of the PBC or in close connection to public interest, within 20 working days from their issue dates as per applicable procedures, unless they need to be kept confidential according to the law.