Six authorities including the People's Bank of China ("PBC") have recently issued the Circular on Further Optimizing the Cross-border RMB Policy to Support the Stabilization of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") for public comments by October 2, 2020.
Major contents of the Draft for Comment touch upon five aspects, including, promoting the RMB settlement facilitation in trade and investment at a higher level, further simplifying the cross-border RMB settlement process, and optimizing the management of cross-border RMB investment and financing. Among others, the Draft for Comment clearly supports domestic banks and non-bank payment institutions to cooperate in providing cross-border RMB receipt and payment services for market entities engaged in such areas as cross-border e-commerce, market procurement mode of trade, and comprehensive foreign trade services, under the premise of compliance with laws and regulations. The Draft for Comment also proposes to optimize the cross-border RMB centralized collection and payment arrangements under the current accounts of multinational enterprise groups, allow the opening of accounts in different places to handle business, and remove restrictions on domestic reinvestment of RMB capital by non-investment foreign-invested enterprises.