The People's Bank of China ("PBC") has recently distributed the Circular on Matters Concerning Improvement of the Category-based Administration of Personal Bank Accounts (the "Circular").
The Circular stipulates that by the end of June 2018, state-owned commercial banks, joint-stock commercial banks and other financial institutions in the banking sector shall make it possible to open personal bank accounts of Category II and Category III both on their bank counters and in other electronic ways, including the online banking, mobile banking, virtual teller machines and smart teller machines. And other types of banks are required to achieve the above-said objectives by the end of December 2018. From the date this Circular is released, each legal-person bank, in principle, may open up to five accounts of Category II and Category III respectively under the name of an individual. Further, the Circular clearly states that the balance in a Category III bank account shall not be higher than CNY2,000 at any time. With regard to a new bank account of Category III opened by an individual through an electronic channel, instead of on a face-to-face basis, if such account is verified by transferring funds into the account from a linked bank account, it is allowed to receive funds of small amount transferred from a non-linked bank account; and the quota for all consumption, payments, and other transfers to non-linked bank accounts is CNY2,000 per day and CNY50,000 per year.